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How does competition among economic actors determine the value that each is able to appropriate? We provide a formal, general framework within which this question can be posed and answered, and then provide several results. Chief among them is a condition that is both required for, and guarantees, value appropriation. We apply our methodology to (i) assess the familiar notion that uniqueness, inimitability, and competition imply value appropriation, and (ii) determine the value appropriation possibilities for an innovator whose unique discovery is of use to several others who can compete for the right to use it.value appropriation, competition, competitive advantage, imitation, innovation

The stringency of the novelty requirement in patent law afects the pace of innovation because it afects the amount of technical information that is disclosed amongfirms. It also afects ex ante profitability of research. We compare weak and strong novelty requirements from the standpoint of social eficiency. We ask how our answer depends on the rule that determines which firm gets a patent when two firms have patents pending on the same technology. The possible rules are 'ffirst-to-invent, " which applies in the U.S., and 'ffirst-to-jile, " which applies everywhere else. 'Mansfield (1984) reports that, in a survey of R&D firms that he undertook, about 60 percent of patented products were successfully imitated within four years of patenting. These are separate requirements in the United States Code, but in practice they are often difficult to distinguish. Products of nature fail nonobviousness, although there are nuances regarding what a product nature is. For example, a purified natural substance, whose useful properties depend on purity, might not fail nonobviousness.

Global peatlands store a very large carbon (C) pool located within a few meters of the atmosphere. Thus, peatland‐atmosphere C exchange should be a major concern to global change scientists: Will large amounts of respired belowground C be released in a warmer climate, causing the climate to further warm (a positive climate feedback)? Will more C be sequestered due to increased plant growth in a warmer climate? How will land use change, fires, and permafrost thaw affect the magnitude and direction of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) exchange with the atmosphere? These questions remain challenging, but some significant progress has been made recently.

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