kvitkod wrote:Why E is wrong?

e) certain factors that made the period from 1982 to 1992 a time of intense patenting activity in the semiconductor industry

this is definitely not the focus of the passage; in fact, no factor is ever mentioned as something that definitively made that period a time of intense patenting activity.
the only thing in the passage that even has anything to do with this answer choice is the very last thing described (the fact that firms began to use patents in shrewd business maneuvers rather than strictly to protect innovations) -- and that fact is not tied directly to the intense patenting activity, but rather to the decline in the general quality of patents.

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more importantly, if you had predicted the answer in your own words before looking through the choices (as suggested in my previous post, 3 posts up from this one), you definitely wouldn't have come up with anything that resembled this answer choice in any way.

UtterNonsense wrote:Hi Ron,
The very first line of the passages says "The system of patent- granting,... was originally
established as an incentive to the pursuit of risky new ideas. Yet studies of the most ...." - To me this indicates the they anticipated something which didn't turn out as expected.
For the above reason I still think A is the correct answer. Probably I am missing something. Please suggest.
Thanks

nope. compare:

The system of patent-granting, which confers temporary monopolies for the exploitation of new technologies, was originally established as an incentive to the pursuit of risky new ideas.

vs.

a study suggesting that the semiconductor industry's approach to patenting during the period from 1982 to 1992 yielded unanticipated results

the patent system was invented a long, long time before 1982, so these answers don't match up. in fact, the last sentence of the passage suggests that these results were not "unanticipated" at all -- that sentence suggests that the semiconductor firms knew exactly what they were doing.

if you change "yielded unanticipated results" to "did not square with the original intention of the patent system", then this answer can be defended. i.e., the semiconductor firms were doing things that violated the original spirit of the patent system -- which is not what this answer choice says.