This research doesn't tell you much concretely about the benefits of the patent system that might be lost in any potential reform, but it certainly says somethi

This research doesn't tell you much concretely about the benefits of the patent system that might be lost in any potential reform, but it certainly says something about the costs that it imposes right now: clearly lots of people get sued over things they invented independently. In fact, in the overwhelming majority of cases not involving chemicals or pharmaceuticals, the people being sued (and thus punished) are independent inventors. It's hard for me not to conceive of "people getting sued over things they invented/created completely independently" as anything other than a pure cost to society, and the research in this paper makes it pretty clear that most patent lawsuits fall into that category of "pure cost to society." It also does say something about the "benefits" of the patent system, though less strongly: clearly if the vast majority of people being sued in particular industries are independently inventing things, that means that the knowledge transfer benefits of patents in those industries is likely over-stated by pro-patent lobbies.