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on Intellectual Property Rights |
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Issue of 2014‒06‒02
seven papers chosen by Giovanni Ramello Universita' del Piemonte Orientale Amedeo Avogadro |
| By: | Kamal Saggi (Vanderbilt University); Difei Geng (Vanderbilt University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines trends in innovative activity in several major Asian countries during 1997-2011 as measured by their filings and grants of various types of intellectual property (IP). By almost all measures, there has been a remarkable increase in innovative activity in China. In fact, in 2011 China accounted for roughly 25% of global patent applications. However, several indirect measures suggest that the quality of this newly created Chinese IP is not (yet) world class. For example, relative to residents of other major Asian countries and the United States, Chinese residents tend to file IP applications in foreign markets at a much lower rate. Similarly, the ratio of royalty payments earned by Chinese residents to the number of patents granted to them is fairly low by international standards. Finally, the ratio of patent to utility model applications (typically granted for relatively minor innovations) in China is also relatively small. |
| Keywords: | innovation, protection of intellectual property, patents, trademarks, industrial designs, TRIPS, Asia |
| JEL: | O3 O5 |
| Date: | 2014–05–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:van:wpaper:vuecon-sub-14-00003&r=ipr |
| By: | Hottenrott H.; Czarnitzki D.; Hall B.H. (UNU-MERIT) |
| Abstract: | Information about the success of a new technology is usually held asymmetrically between the research and development RD-performing firm and potential lenders and investors. This raises the cost of capital for financing RD externally, resulting in financing constraints on RD especially for firms with limited internal resources. Previous literature provided evidence for start-up firms on the role of patents as signals to investors, in particular to Venture Capitalists. This study adds to previous insights by studying the effects of firms patenting activity on the degree of financing constraints on RD for a panel of established firms. The results show that patents do indeed attenuate financing constraints for small firms where information asymmetries may be particularly high and collateral value is low. Larger firms are not only less subject to financing constraints, but also do not seem to benefit from a patent quality signal. Keywords Patents, Quality Signal, Research and Development, Financial Constraints, Innovation Policy |
| Keywords: | Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives; Management of Technological Innovation and R&D; Technological Change: Government Policy; |
| JEL: | O31 O32 O38 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2014013&r=ipr |
| By: | Galasso, Alberto; Mitchell, Matthew; Virag, Gabor |
| Abstract: | Patents are a useful but imperfect reward for innovation. In sectors like pharmaceuticals, where monopoly distortions seem particularly severe, there is growing international political pressure to identify alternatives to patents that could lower prices. Innovation prizes and other non-patent rewards are becoming more prevalent in government's innovation policy, and are also widely implemented by private philanthropists. In this paper we describe situations in which a patent buyout is effective, using information from market outcomes as a guide to the payment amount. We allow for the fact that sales may be manipulable by the innovator in search of the buyout payment, and show that in a wide variety of cases the optimal policy still involves some form of patent buyout. The buyout uses two key pieces of information: market outcomes observed during the patent's life, and the competitive outcome after the patent is bought out. We show that such dynamic market information can be effective at determining both marginal and total willingness to pay of consumers in many important cases, and therefore can generate the right innovation incentives. |
| Keywords: | buyout; innovation; mechanism design; patents |
| JEL: | D82 L51 O31 |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9847&r=ipr |
| By: | Crescenzi, Riccardo; Nathan, Max; Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how physical, organisational, institutional, cognitive, social, and ethnic proximities between inventors shape their collaboration decisions. Using a new panel of UK inventors and a novel identification strategy, this paper systematically explores the net effects of all these ‘proximities’ on co-patenting. The regression analysis allows us to identify the full effects of each proximity, both on choice of collaborator and on the underlying decision to collaborate. The results show that physical proximity is an important influence on collaboration, but is mediated by organisational and ethnic factors. Over time, physical proximity increases in salience. For multiple inventors, geographic proximity is, however, much less important than organisational, social, and ethnic links. For inventors as a whole, proximities are fundamentally complementary, while for multiple inventors they are substitutes. |
| Keywords: | Collaboration; Ethnicity; Innovation; Knowledge spillovers; Patents; Proximities; Regions |
| JEL: | O31 O33 R11 R23 |
| Date: | 2013–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9777&r=ipr |
| By: | Agrawal, Ajay; Cockburn, Iain M; Galasso, Alberto; Oettl, Alexander |
| Abstract: | Large firms spawn spin-outs caused by innovations deemed unrelated to the firm's overall business. Small firms generate demand for specialized services that lower entry costs for others. We study the interplay of these two localized externalities and their impact on regional innovation. We examine MSA-level patent data during the period 1975-2000 and find that innovation output is higher in regions where large and small firms coexist. The finding is robust to across-region as well as within-region analysis and the effect is stronger in certain subsamples in a manner that is consistent with our explanation. |
| Keywords: | cities; externalities; firm size diversity; innovation; patents; spin-outs |
| JEL: | L16 O18 O47 |
| Date: | 2013–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9766&r=ipr |
| By: | Nour S. (UNU-MERIT) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impacts of ICT in public and private Sudanese universities. We verify the first and third hypotheses that the use of ICT facilitates connection, networks and collaboration within public and private universities in Sudan, with local, regional and international institutions. We support the second hypothesis that the use of ICT enhances access, production and dissemination of knowledge in Sudanese universities. We support the fourth hypothesis that the use of ICT introduces a creative-destruction effect by providing opportunities for knowledge production, building connection and organizational changes; but simultaneously also creates hazards to knowledge production and building disconnection for those who do not share the knowledge in public and private Sudanese universities. We show that the most important advantages linked to using the Internet for enhancing production, creation and transfer of knowledge include the increase of digital knowledge for academic and researchers, the rapid quantitative and qualitative increase in transferring information, the development of new models for disseminating and distributing electronic information, and the increase of free access to electronic publications for academic purposes. We find that the main problem related to using the Internet is the lack of a regular budget for university libraries to pay for licenses and access to scientific and technical information. Key words ICT; ICT demand; ICT impacts; public-private universities; knowledge; Sudan |
| Keywords: | Economic Development: General; Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development; Technological Change; Research and Development; Intellectual Property Rights: General; |
| JEL: | O10 O12 O30 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2014018&r=ipr |
| By: | Joshua S. Gans |
| Abstract: | There is a puzzle arising from empirical analyses of the impact of music piracy that this has caused declines in music revenue without a consequential decline, and perhaps even an increase, in the entry of artists and the supply of high quality music. There have been numerous explanations posited and this paper adds a novel one: that artists are time inconsistent and hence, tend to underweight fame over fortune when making future choices; i.e., the degree to which they will ‘sell out.’ Regardless of whether selling out is anticipated or not, the puzzle is resolved. When selling out is not anticipated, future expectations of piracy are not a concern as these impact on monetary awards that are not driving entry. When selling out is anticipated, piracy actually constrains the degree to which artists sell out, and assured of that, raises entry returns. Implications and the role of publisher contracts are also explored. |
| JEL: | D03 K11 L82 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20162&r=ipr |