Biotechnological invention patents: a legal-economic analysis]

Not without controversy, patents have traditionally been considered as elements which stimulate and protect inventive activity. In this article, we look at the economic advantages of a patent system and also at the possible critcisms. We then examine the application of patents in modern biotechnology. After concluding that current intellectual property laws do not come out clearly against the protection of biotechnology inventions, we then review the proposals for European Union regulation in the form of a directive which would clarify patenting possibilities.     

Technological diversity,scientific excellence and the location of inventive activities abroad: the case of nanotechnology

Our contribution to the expanding literature on the globalization of research and innovation is to investigate the extent to which sector-specific developments in an emerging technology (such as increasing interdisciplinarity and complexity) affect inventive activities developed abroad. We look at how technological diversity and scientific excellence of host countries in the field of nanotechnology affect the development of inventive activities by US multinational companies (MNCs). We identify the most active US-based MNCs in nanotechnology-related patenting and examine location decisions of these companies and their international subsidiaries. Econometric results confirm our hypothesis that the technological breadth of host countries positively influences the expected number of inventions developed abroad by US MNCs. Science capabilities of countries also have a positive impact on the decision to invent abroad, while the influence of market specific factors is less clear. We interpret these results as suggesting that host country science capabilities are important to attract innovative activities by MNCs, but as the interdisciplinary and convergent nature of nanotechnology evolves, access to a broadly diversified knowledge base becomes important in increasing the relative attractiveness of host locations.

专利创造性的经济学分析

专利创造性的主要经济学理论包括选择价值理论、连续发明理论、错误成本理论和互补发明理论.这些经济学理论对深入认识专利创造性提供了有益的视角,并能够对专利政策的制定以及专利创造性判断的司法实践提供帮助.分析表明,专利实践中的很多做法都暗含了这些理论分析所隐含的经济理性,但是由于经济学理论难以提供可操作性的工具,经济分析要为政策制定和创造性判断提供具体指导还需要进一步研究.     

Small business innovation: firm level evidence from Sweden

This paper examines innovation among very small firms and provides new insights into both internal and external determinants of patenting. Applying a non-linear panel data approach to about 160,000 observations on manufacturing firms in Sweden for the period 2000?C2006, the following facts emerge: (i) in contrast to larger firms, innovation in micro firms with 1?C10 employees is not sensitive to variation in internal financial resources, (ii) skilled labour is even more important for innovation among micro firms compared to other firms, (iii) affiliation to a domestically owned multinational enterprise group increases the innovation capacity of small businesses, (iv) small firms?? innovation is closely linked to participation in international trade and exports to the G7-countries, and (v) there is no statistically significant evidence that proximity to metropolitan areas, or presence in a specialized cluster, increases the innovativeness of the smallest firm.     

Shaping the path to inventive activity: the role of past experience in R&D alliances

In this paper, we investigate a recurrent organizational event—R&D strategic alliances—and analyze its multidimensional effect on inventive activity; in particular, we examine the quality of the inventive process outcome. In so doing, we address the still-unresolved issue of the impact of past experience in explaining performance differences between firms in the realm of alliance inventiveness. Our results offer new insights concerning the crucial drivers of invention quality and technological breakthroughs. As expected, results suggest that—in the area of R&D—alliances formed by experienced partners are more likely to produce inventions that effectively synthesize technological knowledge from more diverse domains. In fact, experienced alliance partners are more likely to generate useful inventions with a greater innovative impact on others’ subsequent inventions—knowledge that can be built upon. Surprisingly, results are indeterminate with regard to whether innovation via R&D alliance increases invention’s degree of applicability across diverse scientific and technological fields that might cite its patent.     

Technology and Technology Transfer: Mansfieldian Inspirations and Subsequent Developments

This paper discusses the foundational work and ideas of Edwin Mansfield to the economics of technological change and innovation, and introduces some of the recent work in the field. I argue that much of the recent work on patenting, technology strategy and the economics of knowledge has roots to the early Mansfield contributions, and that he should be recognized as a pioneer for these recent developments.     

Chinese university patents: quantity,quality, and the role of subsidy programs

Chinese university patenting has gained importance in recent years. Using a comprehensive dataset of university patents by 155 leading Chinese universities from 1991 to 2009, our study pursues two objectives: First, we analyze the quantity and quality of patents filed by leading Chinese universities. Second, we analyze the role of subsidy programs with regard to university patenting in China. With regard to the first objective, our results show that university patents witnessed rapid growth in terms of quantity while patent quality did not increase to a similar degree. Regarding the second objective, we find that a subsidy program to promote research excellence at selected universities is a significant driver of patent quantity and quality. In contrast, a subsidy program that decreases the costs of patent applications seems to enhance patent quantity but not patent quality. We conclude that innovation policies which aim to stimulate patents of higher quality should focus primarily on increasing university R&D, and to a lesser extent on decreasing the costs of university patenting.     

On Understanding the Increase in U.S. Patent Litigation

Patent litigation in the United States has increased dramaticallyin the last 20 years. Understanding this increase, and the concomitantincrease in patent grants, can help us to better understandthe sources of technological innovation and productivity. Theapproach described here provides a means to simultaneously examineboth the "friendly court" hypothesis and the hypothesis of anincrease in research productivity associated with the informationage. The results support the notion that both hypothesized factors,changes in court outcomes and increased research productivityand the associated increase in patenting activity, have playeda role in the growth of patent litigation.     

The effects of industry characteristics on the sources of technological product and process innovation

In order to explore the effects of industry characteristics on the sources of technological product and process (TPP) innovation, this paper considers various sources in a united framework, and identifies their cross-industry similarities and differences. It sheds light on three Chinese high technology industries, and empirically confirms that in-house R&D, technology transfer, technology spillover and back-propagation of user innovations are all effective sources of TPP innovation. However, each source creates different productivity in different industries, which may be explained by the following industry characteristics: the dependence on foreign technology, the importance attached to inventive in-house R&D, the level of domestic technology, the relative proportions of foreign and domestic users.     

Patent-Secret Mix in Complex Product Firms

Different protection mechanisms may be employed at the sametime when an innovation is comprised of separately protectablecomponents. If patents and trade secrets can be mixed in protectingsingle innovations, a strengthening in patent breadth may inducea lower level of patenting, as innovators are more prone torely on secrecy.     

Science Parks’ tenants versus out-of-Park firms: who innovates more? A duration model

We study the successfulness of Science Parks (SPs) as seedbeds of innovation. We investigate whether SPs enhance the innovative output of their tenants and if tenants outperform comparable outside-SPs firms. We rely on original matching datasets regarding in- and out-SP Finnish firms and their patenting activity over 1970–2002. We estimate and compare the ‘before-versus-after’ hazard rates of patenting of both samples. The results suggest that, given the existence of a common tendency to slow down the pace at which all firms patent during their life cycle, Park tenants exhibit a comparatively better performance. Results are robust to various model specifications and to Wald tests performed over the pooled samples.

Nanotechnology and the US national innovation system: continuity and change

A substantial literature on nanotechnology innovation and commercial development has characterized several elements of these phenomena as constituting new developments in the US national innovation system. Among these elements are the (asserted) “post-academic” nature of US universities’ involvement with nanotechnology R&D, and federal funding of nanotechnology R&D on goals related to economic competitiveness. This paper challenges the “novelty” of these elements, while suggesting that other elements of nanotechnology R&D, including the extensive patenting of the results of nanotechnology-related research and the emphasis within many university-industry collaborations on patent-based channels for “technology transfer,” may indeed be new and raise questions for the long-term efficiency and innovative performance of nanotechnology-related R&D.     

Patenting and Invention Activity of U.S. Scientists and Engineers in the Academic Sector: Comparisons with Industry

Analyses have been performed of the patenting and invention activity of U.S. scientists and engineers (S&Es) in the academic sector and comparisons have been made with their counterparts in industry. The analyses are based upon survey questions concerning patent applications, grant awards and commercialization outcomes from two 1995 National Science Foundation (NSF) nationally representative workforce surveys. A series of new indicators – patent activity rates, patent activity shares and patent success rates – has been defined and utilized to examine patent activity by employment sector, educational field, demographic variables, status and location of university faculty, technological area, and selected S&E job characteristics. It is recommended that NSF collect data on patenting activity, including commercialization outcomes, in its surveys of the S&E workforce at least every four years. Data should also be collected on university-industry collaboration in patent activity in the U.S., and between S&Es in the U.S. and other countries.     

The Use of USPTO “Continuation” Applications in the Patenting of Software: Implications for Free and Open Source*

This paper examines the role played by “continuations” (procedural revisions of patent applications) within software patenting and the implications that the use by patentees of continuations has for free and open‐source software design. Our research analyzes data on continuations in software patenting 1987–99, providing information on the effects of changes made to the U.S. patent laws in 1995 intended to curb “submarine patenting.” Our analysis of all U.S. patents issued 1987–99 shows that the use of continuations grew steadily in overall U.S. patenting through 1995, with particularly rapid growth in continuations in software patenting. Sharp reversals in these growth rates after 1995 suggest that changes in the U.S. patent law were effective. We analyze the role of continuation patents in creating opportunities for patentees to engage in strategic “hold‐up” of software adopters and follow‐on software innovators, and extend the analysis to open‐source software.     

Patents and Appropriation: Concerns and Evidence1

For over the past twenty years, the United States has witnessed a pro-patent movement. In response, numerous concerns have been raised, including possible impediments to innovation in cumulative technologies, emergence of anti-commons, barriers to entry and an elevation of costs of innovation associated with defensive patenting, growth in patent litigation and poor quality patents. Although there is little systematic evidence that these concerns have materialized in any substantial way, vigilance is nonetheless warranted.     

Patenting and spin-off creation by Canadian researchers in engineering and life sciences

This paper examines the determinants of patenting and spin-off creation using survey data of 479 researchers in engineering and 449 researchers in life sciences funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). The results show that research novelty and laboratory size are the only two variables significantly explaining patenting and spin-off formation in both engineering and life sciences. Network capital explains spin-off formation in engineering and in life sciences as well as patenting in life sciences, but not in engineering. Furthermore, the results suggest that many categories of resources explain patenting and spin-off formation in engineering and in life sciences, but that the combinations of resources required differ for patenting and spin-off formation and between engineering and life sciences. The results of this paper suggest that customized policies would be required to accommodate differences between spin-off formation and patenting as well as between engineering and life sciences.      

Scientists’ perspectives concerning the effects of university patenting on the conduct of academic research in the life sciences

This paper explores scientists’ perspectives on the possible “unintended effects” of university patenting on the definition of academic research agendas, and the norms of open science. Based on a survey of life science researchers in Denmark, we found that a substantial proportion of scientists were skeptical about the impact of university patenting. The most skeptical respondents were scientists oriented towards basic research (particularly the less productive ones), recipients of research council grants, scientists with close relations to industry, and full professors. Highly productive scientists were less concerned. Our results have implications for understanding the ultimate success or failure of academic patenting policies, including how increased university patenting may be affecting how scientists conduct academic research.     

Fathers’ patenting behavior and the propensity of offspring to patent: an intergenerational analysis

In this paper we show that the patenting behavior of innovators is correlated with the patenting behavior of their fathers. Our argument for exploring this relationship stems from established theories of entrepreneurial behavior, specifically theories on intergenerational behavior. Our empirical analyses are based on survey data collected from MIT’s Technology Review (TR) winners.     

Absorptive capacity and post-acquisition inventor productivity

Inventors often experience a low productivity after their company has been subject to a merger or acquisition (M&As). It is of central managerial interest to identify factors facilitating the integration of new inventive staff and thereby counteracting innovation declines after M&As. This paper provides empirical evidence into the role of acquiring firms?? absorptive capacity for the post-merger patent productivity of the acquired inventors. Based on a sample of 544 inventors employed by European acquisition targets in the period 2000?C2001 it is shown that the post-merger productivity of acquired inventors is significantly higher within acquiring firms with a distinct absorptive capacity. It can be concluded that absorptive capacity is a firm capability that enhances the integration of inventors after firm takeovers.