|
on Intellectual Property Rights |
| By: | Zaby, Alexandra K.; Heger, Diana |
| Abstract: | Innovators seek to protect their intellectual assets by patenting them, at the same time trying to avoid any disclosure of critical knowledge. Given that a patent specification has to include a clear description of the patented matter so that anybody skilled in the art is enabled to reproduce the invention, the non-disclosure intention seems contradictory to patent law. This paper provides a model identifying the incentives for firms to deliberately obscure their inventive knowledge in a patent specification. -- |
| Keywords: | patent specification,disclosure requirement,strategic firm behavior,fuzzy patents |
| JEL: | O31 O34 L24 D21 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:13043&r=ipr |
| By: | Rabah Amir (University of Arizona - University of Arizona); David Encaoua (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris); Yassine Lefouili (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | The paper investigates the choice of a licensing mechanism by the holder of a patent whose validity may be challenged. Focusing fi rst on weak patents, i.e. patents that have a high probability of being invalidated by a court if challenged, we show that the patent holder fi nds it optimal to use a per-unit royalty contract if the strategic effect of an increase in a potential licensees unit cost on the equilibrium industry profi t is positive. The latter condition ensures the superiority of the per-unit royalty mechanism independently of whether the patent holder is an industry insider or outsider, and is shown to hold in a Cournot (resp. Bertrand) oligopoly with homogeneous (resp. differentiated) products under general assumptions on the demands faced by fi rms. We then examine the optimal licensing of patents that are uncertain but not necessarily weak. As a byproduct of our analysis, we contribute to the oligopoly literature by offering some new insights of independent interest regarding the effects of cost variations on Cournot and Bertrand equilibria. |
| Keywords: | Licensing mechanisms, Uncertain patents, Patent litigation, Cost comparative statics. |
| Date: | 2013–05–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-00847955&r=ipr |
| By: | Philipp Schautschick (Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich; and Munich Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property and Competition Law); Christine Greenhalgh (Oxford Intellectual Property Research Centre and St Peter's College, Oxford) |
| Abstract: | This paper surveys empirical studies employing trade mark data that exist in the economic literature to date. Section 1) documents the use of trade marks by firms in several advanced countries including Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, 2) reviews different attempts to gauge the function of a trade mark as indicator of innovation and product differentiation, and 3) provides an overview of the association of trade marks with dimensions of firm performance and productivity. Sections 4) and 5) give accounts of studies that focus on the social costs and value of trade marks, namely their importance for firm survival, their impact on demand, and firms' incentives to innovate but also to raise rivals' costs. Section 6) covers first endeavours to investigate the interplay between different types of intellectual property rights, while 7) briefly concludes. |
| Keywords: | Intellectual property, trade marks, empirical studies |
| JEL: | O33 O34 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2013n25&r=ipr |
| By: | Farha Ghapar; Robert Brooks; Russell Smyth |
| Abstract: | This study analyzes the relationship between patenting activity and financial performance at the Malaysian firm level for firms that have been granted patents in Malaysia and the United States of America. We adopt the patent renewal and profit maximization model as our theoretical underpinning for this study. The patenting activity variables are measured based on the patent renewal system and the financial performance variables are measured based on the profit margin. The sample is divided into manufacturing and non-manufacturing firms. We utilize a panel dataset spanning from 1994 to 2008 and the model is estimated using panel least squares, fixed effects, random effects and generalized method of moments with various types of effects specifications and transformations. The key finding from the empirical study is that there is a significant relationship between patenting activity and financial performance at the Malaysian firm level, but that the impact is rather small and that the signs on the coefficients are mixed. This result may reflect the level of competition that the firms faced over the period of the study, even though patenting is well known for giving firms some monopoly power. |
| Keywords: | Patenting, patent renewal, firm financial performance, panel data model |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2013-22&r=ipr |
| By: | Michael McAleer; Chia-Lin Chang; Ju-Ting Tang (University of Canterbury) |
| Abstract: | With the advent of globalization, economic and financial interactions among countries have become widespread. Given technological advancements, the factors of production can no longer be considered to be just labor and capital. In the pursuit of economic growth, every country has sensibly invested in international cooperation, learning, innovation, technology diffusion and knowledge. In this paper, we use a panel data set of 40 countries from 1981 to 2008 and a negative binomial model, using a novel set of cross-border patents and joint patents as proxy variables for technology diffusion, in order to investigate such diffusion. The empirical results suggest that, if it is desired to shift from foreign to domestic technology, it is necessary to increase expenditure on R&D for business enterprises and higher education, exports and technology. If the focus is on increasing bilateral technology diffusion, it is necessary to increase expenditure on R&D for higher education and technology. |
| Keywords: | International Technology Diffusion, Exports, Imports, Joint Patent, Cross-border Patent, R&D, Negative Binomial Panel Data |
| JEL: | F14 F21 O30 O57 |
| Date: | 2013–07–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbt:econwp:13/24&r=ipr |
| By: | Rachel Soloveichik; David Wasshausen (Bureau of Economic Analysis) |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bea:wpaper:0102&r=ipr |