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on Intellectual Property Rights |
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Issue of 2015‒04‒19
nine papers chosen by Giovanni Ramello Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale “Amedeo Avogadro” |
| By: | Tomasz Kijek (University of Life Sciences in Lublin) |
| Abstract: | This paper tries to find how firms use IPRs in the form of patents to protect innovation capital and find determinants of their effectiveness. The research is based on a large sample of 2960 Polish manufacturing firms that were engaged in developing and/or implementing a product or process innovation in the years 2010-2012. Besides descriptive statistics which show firms’ attitudes toward the effectiveness of patents and their determinants, I apply the knowledge production functionto find a link between patent propensity, R&D and innovation performance. Descriptive analyses show that Polish manufacturing firms rarely use patents as the appropriability mechanism which results in the low level of their perceived effectiveness. It also turns out that the perceived effectiveness of a patent depends on a firm’s size, theinnovation type and technological opportunities. In turn, the results of the knowledge production function estimationallow me to conclude that an increase in patent propensity affects the firm’s innovation performancepositively. |
| Keywords: | innovation capital;appropriability mechanism; intellectual property rights;patent;knowledge production function |
| JEL: | O31 O34 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pes:wpaper:2015:no60&r=ipr |
| By: | Svensson, Roger (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)) |
| Abstract: | Firms and governments spend billions of dollars on R&D every year. To increase social welfare, the results of R&D must be commercialized so that consumers can benefit from improved products and lower prices. One measure of R&D output is patents; however, most patent databases contain no information on whether patents have been commercialized, i.e., whether innovations have been introduced in the market. This paper applies a new method to identify innovations in patent databases by relating traditional patent quality indicators (patent renewal, patent equivalents and forward citations) to patent commercialization variables. For this purpose, I use a unique database on Swedish patents that includes information on whether patents are commercialized and whether the commercialization is profitable. The estimations show that commercialization is strongly positively correlated with both patent renewal and patent equivalents but only moderately positively correlated with forward citations. Further, successful innovations are most positively related to patent renewal. Based on the traditional patent quality indicators and estimated parameters in the model, probabilities of commercialization and successful innovations can be predicted. The developed parameters may be used to identify innovations across sectors and regions in other patent databases. |
| Keywords: | Patents; Commercialization; Innovations; Profitability; Patent renewal; Patent equivalents; Forward citations; Predicted probabilities |
| JEL: | O31 O34 |
| Date: | 2015–04–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1067&r=ipr |
| By: | Manuel G. Ch\'avez-Angeles; Patricia S. S\'anchez-Medina |
| Abstract: | In many developing countries intellectual property infringement and the commerce of pirate goods is an entrepreneurial activity. Digital piracy is very often the only media for having access to music, cinema, books and software. At the same time, bio-prospecting and infringement of indigenous knowledge rights by international consortiums is usual in places with high biodiversity. In these arenas transnational actors interact with local communities. Accusations of piracy often go both ways. This article analyzes the case of southeast Mexico. Using a war of attrition game theory model it explains different situations of intellectual property rights piracy and protection. It analyzes different levels of interaction and institutional settings from the global to the very local. The article proposes free IP zones as a solution of IP disputes. The formation of technological local clusters through Free Intellectual Property Zones (FIPZ) would allow firms to copy and share de facto public domain content for developing new products inside the FIPZ. Enforcement of intellectual property could be pursuit outside of the FIPZ. FIPZ are envisioned as a new type of a sui generis intellectual property regime. |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1504.02511&r=ipr |
| By: | Harhoff, Dietmar; Stoll, Sebastian |
| Abstract: | One of the objectives of patent systems is to disclose information which other agents can build on in further inventions and in their decision-making. While some observers take it as given that real-world patent systems serve this objective, we argue in this article that patent systems are highly opaque and likely to be of limited value as a source of information. We use data from a natural experiment to explore this issue. Requests for accelerated examination used to be publicly observable at the European Patent Office (EPO). Starting in December 2001, the EPO started to treat these requests as confidential information. Using data on acceleration requests which were historically known only to the applicant and the EPO, and later provided to us, we test whether the change in the information regime impacted the actions of applicants and their rivals. We develop a theoretical model of acceleration requests and patent opposition to identify the extent to which the patent system is opaque. We confirm empirically that opposition and acceleration rates of high-value patents change significantly in most technological areas once acceleration requests become unobservable. We interpret these results as evidence that the system is highly opaque in many fields. |
| Keywords: | patent value; opaqueness; accelerated examination; patent opposition; European Patent Office (EPO) |
| JEL: | K40 L00 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trf:wpaper:496&r=ipr |
| By: | Alexander Galetovic; Stephen Haber; Ross Levine |
| Abstract: | A large literature asserts that standard essential patents (SEPs) allow their owners to “hold up” innovation by charging fees that exceed their incremental contribution to a final product. We evaluate two central, interrelated predictions of this SEP hold-up hypothesis: (1) SEP-reliant industries should experience more stagnant quality-adjusted prices than similar non-SEP-reliant industries; and (2) court decisions that reduce the excessive power of SEP holders should accelerate innovation in SEP-reliant industries. We find no empirical support for either prediction. Indeed, SEP-reliant industries have the fastest quality-adjusted price declines in the U.S. economy. |
| JEL: | K11 O31 O34 O38 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21090&r=ipr |
| By: | Michał Krawczyk (Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw); Joanna Tyrowicz (Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw; National Bank of Poland); Anna Kukla-Gryz (Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw); Wojciech Hardy (Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw) |
| Abstract: | Ethical norms on the Internet are believed to be more permissive than in the ‘real’ world and this belief often serves as an explanation for the prevalence of the so-called digital “piracy”. In this study we provide evidence from a vignette experiment that contradicts this claim. Analyzing the case of sports broadcast, we compare explicitly the ethical judgment of legal and illegal sharing in the offline and online context. We find that the norms concerning legality, availability of alternatives and deriving material benefits from sharing content do not differ substantially between the virtual and real worlds. We also test explicitly for the role of legal awareness and find that emphasizing what is prohibited (copyright infringement) is less effective than focusing on what is permitted (fair use) in reducing the disparity between legal and ethical norms. |
| Keywords: | Internet piracy, file sharing, fair use, legal awareness, copynorms, vignette experiment |
| JEL: | K42 O34 L82 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:war:wpaper:2015-15&r=ipr |
| By: | Nicolas Dias Gomes (Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra, Portugal); Pedro André Cerqueira (Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra and GEMF, Portugal); Luís Alçada Almeida (Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra and INESC-Coimbra, Portugal) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we construct a panel data set from 2000 to 2011 for the EU 28, studying the impact of education on the levels of software piracy in a country. When an aggregated analysis is made, e.g. considering all ISCED (International Standard Classification of Education) levels, expenditure on public educational institutions as well as public spending on education have a deterrent effect on piracy, being significant. However, the effect of financial aid to students is positive. When the analysis is made taking into account the ISCED 1997 disaggregation, expenditure on ISCED 5-6 has a negative and significant effect. Taking into account the type of educational institutions, more expenditure on ISCED 1 to 4 will lower piracy. We also found that more financial help to students on higher levels of education, e.g. ISCED 5-6, have a positive and significant effect. Finally, more years of schooling of both primary and secondary education will have a deterrent effect on software piracy. |
| Keywords: | ISCED classification, Software Piracy, Education. |
| JEL: | C23 I21 O34 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gmf:wpaper:2015-07.&r=ipr |
| By: | Bournakis, Ioannis; Christopoulos, Dimitris; Mallick, Sushanta |
| Abstract: | Given the decline in growth momentum in the manufacturing sector in many OECD countries, the role of knowledge-based capital has emerged as a key driver for sustained growth. While empirical studies on estimating knowledge spillovers have usually been undertaken at the country level, the spillover effects can be more definitive only if the analysis is conducted at the industry-level. The effectiveness of international spillovers is conditional on recipient country’s absorptive capacity and this is an important component of the spillover mechanism that has not attracted significant attention so far. This paper therefore assesses the effect of spillovers in driving per capita output growth taking into account the role of absorptive capacity. Our main findings are first, the confirmation of the robust positive relationship between human capital and output growth for 14 OECD countries at industry level. Second, the gains from international spillover are conditional to the level of human capital and the degree of protection of intellectual property rights. Third, countries that improve absorptive capacity can potentially increase gains from spillovers via either trade or FDI (including vertical FDI). Finally, significant heterogeneity is found between high and low-tech industries. The former group is more effective in absorbing spillovers while the latter has failed to reach the critical level of technological advancement in order to absorb foreign and domestic knowledge. |
| Keywords: | Growth; R&D; Knowledge Spillovers; Absorptive Capacity; Human Capital; Intellectual Property Rights |
| JEL: | E24 F1 O3 O4 |
| Date: | 2015–02–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:63542&r=ipr |
| By: | Nabila Arfaoui; Eric Brouillat; Maïder Saint Jean |
| Abstract: | The present paper takes ground on an agent-based model presented in Arfaoui et al. (2014) to investigate the effects of credibility upon technology substitution such as stimulated by the REACH regulation (EC 1907/2006). The model is used to study how the perceived credibility by clients on the one hand and the perceived credibility by suppliers on the other hand influence or nor the transition from an old established technology to a new safer technology in two opposite scenarios: when the scenario is highly stringent (HS) or weakly stringent (LS) in terms of target-performance and timing. Results show that enhancing client credibility favors technology substitution by accelerating the diffusion of the new environmental technology and benefits the environment. However higher client credibility in the LS has counterproductive effects since suppliers have to face a strong pressure by clients to adopt the new technology but it is not accompanied by a forceful discrimination by public authority. When considering supplier credibility, there is no significant influence except that higher supplier credibility in the LS means stronger pressure to adopt early T2 and to get a mixed portfolio but it turns to be premature since the demand is not ready to buy such a technology. The last section of the paper provides a discussion of these results. |
| Keywords: | Academic research, Industrial policy, Innovation, Innovation policy, Patents |
| JEL: | O33 Q53 Q55 Q56 R11 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:feu:wfewop:y:2015:m:3:d:0:i:92&r=ipr |