Academic Inventiveness and Entrepreneurship: On the Importance of Start-up Companies in Commercializing Academic Patents

This article presents research that places the academic start-up phenomenon in the broader technology transfer context. Drawing on data on Finnish academic inventions, the paper illustrates that a considerable share of university-related patents are utilized in start up companies but that still most academic patents are utilized in established and predominantly large firms. Differences in utilization patterns are explored for different fields of science and technology.     

Science and Technology for Economic Growth. New Insights from when the Data Contradicts Desktop Models1

Science and technology policy initiatives in the early 1980s have focused in both the United States and Western Europe on improving capacity to apply a good science base in practice, expecting increases in technological advancement, improved market presence and enhanced economic growth. Results varied broadly in the United States and Europe. Even more puzzling, Japan charged ahead in technological advancement without that strong of a science base of its own. Some industrialized economies do not conform to the expected science–technology relationship, whereby strong performance in science shall lead to strong technological performance. The puzzling science–technology relationship in advanced countries has plausible explanations. (1) Science–technology relationship is much interdependent or symbiotic. Its strength and primary direction at a given time varies largely by field of science or technological innovation and across long periods of time. (2) Science–technology link in a country may depend on the overall scientific and technological level of development in that country. The strength and interdependent nature of this link evolves historically and varies across fields of science and technology. The strength of the link is affected by scientific and technological specialization in a country. Different technological fields have different scientific intensities, or degrees of building upon the science base. (3) Specialization of countries across scientific and technological fields varies. Hence, the strength of science–technology link differs between countries. High technological specialization of a country may impact its technological performance more than its immediately current scientific performance does. History, tradition and knowledge transfers may affect more returns on R&D expenditures than the actual value of R&D funds spent in science or technology. Explanations of puzzling behavior of science–technology link may become policy recommendations.     

Finnish parties’ positions in 2007: A matter of equilibrium or voters’ projection?

According to the Finnish National Election Studies (FNES) the positions of Finnish parties in the years 2003 and 2007 were almost identical. In FNES, party placement is based on the voters’ perceptions and therefore it is assumed that either the voters have correctly guessed the positions of the parties or they have been wrong in their judgments. In the first case, the Finnish parties are likely to have reached a state of equilibrium where no party has an incentive for unilaterally changing its optimal position. On the other hand, if the voters are incorrect, it is likely that they have projected their own positions to the parties. The results reject the equilibrium hypothesis and confirm the projection hypothesis.     

The Persistence of Home Bias for Important R&D in Wireless Telecom and Automobiles

We argue that in this age of globalization, important R&D—in automobiles and wireless telecommunication—exhibits a decisive home bias. This contrasts with findings on the rate and extent of globalization of the aggregate of activities classified as R&D. Sorting out R&D was deemed important at the outset by the firm, and comparing that to "regular" R&D by the same firms enables the argument. We take our findings on location a step further by examining, for this category of R&D, the reasons for nonglobalization.     

论我国法院判定专利权效力的界限——专利无效判断方式的原则与例外

学界对于专利侵权纠纷与确权纠纷解决“双轨制构造”批评颇多,有关问题的解决思路也争议良多、尚难以达成统一意见。专利法需要改革,但改革离不开理论支撑,不可违背基本法理“自说自话”。学者们尚未足够重视专利权有效性推定对于专利无效判断方式所带来的影响。明晰“双轨制构造”背后存在的法理基础,为专利法改革提供基础理论支持,显得尤为重要。在现有的法理基础上进行专利法改革,法院原则上应充分尊重专利局的确权职能,只有在例外的情况下,也即当然无效的情形下才能直接判定专利权效力。     

The Effects of University Patenting and Licensing on Downstream R&D Investment and Social Welfare

A central argument behind the Bayh-Dole Act presumed that firms had no incentives to invest in downstream R&D aimed at developing university inventions committed to the public domain. The empirical evidence on university patenting and licensing is partly at odds with the premises of this argument. Non-exclusive licensing of university patents has been common and lucrative, and in the area of biomedical technologies university patents and licensing restrictions may be a hindrance to downstream R&D, rather than a stimulus. The paper presents a model of R&D competition based on a university invention where appropriability conditions are defined by the patentability of downstream innovations and imitation opportunities. A comparison of equilibria under “open access” to university inventions and under “university patenting” shows that only under restrictive conditions the latter regime results in increased R&D investment and social welfare. In general, university licensing royalties are therefore a poor gauge of social welfare gains from university patenting. This is an extensive revision of the paper “University Patents, R&D Competition, and Social Welfare” presented at the conference on University Spin-Offs at the Université du Québec à Montréal on February 27th, 2004. I would like to thank the conference participants and a referee from the journal for useful comments and suggestions.     

美国非显而易见性判定实践的误区和难点

非显而易见性要求是专利诉讼焦点之一,也是判定实践的难点之一,特别是对生物技术等一些新兴的领域。2009年Kubin案对非显而易见性的判定结果引发了关于基因专利非显而易见性的激烈讨论。通过结合相关实践案例分析,指出美国专利非显而易见性的判定实践的误区和难点。     

Article 53(b) EPC: A Challenge to the Novartis Theory of European Patent History

The authoritative ( Novartis/transgenic plant systems ) interpretation of the Article 53(b) EPC exclusion from European patentability of plant and animal varieties, and essentially biological processes for the creation of plants and animals, is considered, and its significance for the trend of EPO jurisprudence and legitimacy of the EC Biotechnology Patenting Directive noted. The Enlarged Board of Appeal's justification for that interpretation in Novartis with reference to the exclusion's legislative history is challenged, and an alternative theory of that history proposed, based on a thorough analysis of the unpublished travaux préparatoires for the Strasbourg and European Patent Conventions. In addition to elucidating the framers' (actual and presumed) intent with respect to the Article 53(b) exclusion, that analysis offers an insight into post-war legal unification methodology and its continued impact on one of the most contentious and technical areas of intellectual property law.     

Liability for the Escape of GM Seeds: Pursuing the ‘Victim’?

The widespread commercial cultivation of GM crops in the EU and the UK is getting closer. Intense concerns about the uncertain health and environmental effects of GM farming have been the subject of high profile debate. The effects of GM farming on existing forms of agriculture, raised by the prospect of cross–pollination by GM seed, provoke similarly polarised views. However, whilst regulatory developments have been strongly influenced by environmental and health concerns, the socio–economic impact of GM agriculture is relatively neglected in current regulatory approaches. The authors examine various possible legal responses to unwanted cross–pollination by GM seed, and contend that the law is likely to struggle to cope with the conflicts that may arise.     

Dissolution and Reintegration in Finland, 1914–1932: How did a Disarmed Country Become Absorbed into Brutalization?

Finland avoided participation in the Great War, but in 1918 fell into a short civil war that culminated in a cycle of vicious terror. The focus of this article is to explain the high incidence of terror during that civil war in comparison with other civil wars that took place in the Baltic region. The violent polarization of Finnish society was triggered as reform expectations skyrocketed at the moment when the country’s institutions were in chaos and its economy in a free fall. Mutual distrust, armed mobilizations, and a sense that time was running out in the arms race were key factors that drove both warring parties to the violent conflict. The author concludes with a discussion of the reintegration of the dissolved state. He frames the conflict within various psychological theories and group behavior in the context of economic possibilities and expectations. The article is based on his own empirical research and on the studies of other scholars on the history of the Finnish Civil War.