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on Intellectual Property Rights |
| By: | Michel, Julie |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to participate in the discussion of the effects of outward FDI in R&D on the home country. The main possible threat for home economies is the relocation of R&D activities to foreign regions and, as a result, the loss of technological capacity. This study contributes to this issue by analysing the role played by the home country in the development of the multinational enterprises’ innovative activities. Three different elements will be evaluated: the extent of R&D activities operated outside the home country; the compared value of foreign and home R&D activities; and the role of the home country as a source of knowledge. These elements are investigated through an analysis of patents and patent citations of 71 Swiss MNEs issued between 1978 and 2006. |
| Keywords: | R&D; Home countries; Innovation; MNEs |
| JEL: | F23 O32 O31 O3 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:6400&r=ipr |
| By: | Alessandro STERLACCHINI (Universita' Politecnica delle Marche, Dipartimento di Management ed Organizzazione Aziendale); Francesco SCHETTINO (Universit… Politecnica delle Marche) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents the results of a survey on a regional sample of Italian inventors who, over the period 1991-2005, have submitted patent applications to the European Patent Office. The inventors' features and patenting activities are mainly examined according to the size of the firms they are working in. Compared to those coming from medium-large companies, `small inventors' (encompassing employees or owners of small firms and independent inventors) have a lower educational level, ascribe less importance to codified sources of knowledge and are less productive in terms of patent applications. However, by using forward citations and other indicators, it emerges that there is no difference in the average quality of patented inventions of the two groups. Nevertheless, one third of small inventors evaluates negatively its patenting experience, while it is true for only a tiny fraction of larger patentees. On the basis of further interviews, we find that the inventors' assessments are particularly influenced by their different capabilities to enforce intellectual property rights. |
| Keywords: | European patents, Firm size, Intellectual property rights, Inventors, Patent quality |
| JEL: | L20 O31 O34 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anc:wpaper:308&r=ipr |
| By: | Cowan, Robin (UNU-MERIT); Zinovyeva, N. (BETA, Université Louis Pasteur) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes empirically the channels through which university research affects industry innovation. We examine how the opening of new science, medicine and engineering departments in Italy during 1985-2000 affected regional innovation systems. We find that creation of a new university department increased regional innovation activity 3-4 years later. On average, an opening of a new department in a region has led to a ten percent change in the number of patents filed by regional firms. Given that this effect occurs within the first half decade of the appearance of a new department, it cannot be ascribed to improvements in the quality and quantity of graduates. At the same time, traditional measures of academic research activity can explain only around 30 percent of this effect. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, Academic Research, R&D, Universities, University-Industry Linkages, Technology Transfer, Regional Innovation Systems. |
| JEL: | O31 O32 O33 I23 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2007037&r=ipr |
| By: | Giammario Impullitti |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the welfare effects of international competition in the market for innovations, and analyzes how competition affects the costs and the benefits of cooperative and non-cooperative R&D subsidies. I set up a two-country quality-ladder growth model where the leader, the home country, has R&D firms innovating in all sectors of the economy, and the follower, the foreign country, shows innovating firms only in a subset of industries. The measure of the set of sectors where R&D workers from both countries compete for innovation determines the scale of international Schumpeterian competition. Both governments engage in a strategic R&D subsidy game and respond optimally to changes in competition. For a given level of subsidies, increases in foreign competition raise the quality of goods available (growth effect) and lowers domestic profits (business-stealing effect); the overall effect of competition on domestic welfare depends on the relative strength of these two counteracting forces. When governments play a strategic subsidy game, increases in foreign competition trigger a defensive innovation policy mechanism that raises the optimal domestic R&D subsidy. Cooperation in subsidies leads both countries to set higher subsidies. Finally, while cooperation is beneficial for the global economy, there exists a threshold level of competition below which the home country experiences welfare losses under cooperation. |
| Keywords: | international competition, endogenous technical change, growth theory, strategic R&D subsidies, international policy cooperation |
| JEL: | O41 O31 O38 F12 F43 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eui:euiwps:eco2007/55&r=ipr |
| By: | Lars Bo Jeppesen; Keld Laursen |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces a model of knowledge sharing of lead users located in a public and unrestricted community of users. While existing literature on knowledge sharing focuses on allocation and collaboration processes inside or among companies we extend this to the community level. We then focus on how key agents — lead users — facilitate knowledge sharing in this setting and the features that moderate such sharing. Our results show that lead users are central to search and integration of knowledge from different external sources of relevance to their communities. Inside the community lead users are active in both “giving and taking” knowledge. Further, as users build up experience they tend to give more knowledge, thus suggesting a dynamic pattern of knowledge sharing in which increases in experience make way for important knowledge diffusion processes in the community. |
| Keywords: | Lead users; knowledge sharing; innovation; on-line community |
| JEL: | D83 O31 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aal:abbswp:07-24&r=ipr |
| By: | Robert M. Sauer (University of Southampton and IZA) |
| Abstract: | A review of the basic theory of optimal open-source software contributions points to three key factors affecting supply: non-pecuniary benefits, future expected monetary returns, and opensource licence type. This paper argues that existing large-scale software developer surveys are inadequate for measuring the relative importance of these three factors. Moreover, previous econometric studies that collect their own unique datasets generally measure the importance of only one supply factor in isolation. To fill the gap, I specify a dynamic programming model of joint labour supply and open-source contribution decisions that can provide empirical estimates of relative importance within a single unified framework. |
| Keywords: | software, open-source, labour supply, dynamic programming |
| JEL: | C61 C80 J24 J44 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3197&r=ipr |
| By: | Marcel Boyer |
| Abstract: | The Copyright Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42) includes several exceptions to the exclusive right of copyright holders, including the provisions concerning “fair dealing”, which state that fair dealing in respect of a literary or artistic work for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, or news reporting does not constitute a violation of copyright. Our objective in this paper is to characterize the role and nature of this exception from the standpoint of contemporary economic theory and analysis and in the light of the recent Supreme Court of Canada on this subject (CCH Canadian Ltd. v. Law Society of Upper Canada, [2004] 1 S.C.R. 339, 2004 SCC 13). <P>La Loi sur le droit d’auteur (L.R.C. 1985, ch. C-42) comporte plusieurs exceptions au droit exclusif des titulaires de droit d'auteur, parmi lesquelles se trouvent les dispositions sur « l'utilisation équitable » qui stipulent que l'utilisation équitable d'une œuvre littéraire ou artistique aux fins d'étude privée, de recherche, de critique et de compte rendu, de communications de nouvelles ne constitue pas une violation du droit d’auteur. Notre objectif ici est de caractériser le rôle et la nature de cette exception du point de vue de la théorie et de l’analyse économiques contemporaines et à la lumière de la récente décision de la Cour suprême du Canada en la matière (CCH Canadienne Ltée c. Barreau du Haut Canada, 2004 CSC 13, [2004] 1 R.C.S. 339). |
| Keywords: | copyright, fair dealing, Supreme Court, droit d’auteur, utilisation équitable, Cour suprême |
| Date: | 2007–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cir:cirwor:2007s-32&r=ipr |