nep-ipr New Economics Papers
on Intellectual Property Rights
Issue of 2013‒03‒09
seven papers chosen by
Giovanni Ramello
Universita' Amedeo Avogadro

  1. Are Trade Marks and Patents Complementary or Substitute Protections for Innovation. By Patrick Llerena; Valentine Millot
  2. Corporate taxation and the quality of research and development By Ernst, Christof; Richter, Katharina; Riedel, Nadine
  3. Rationales and instruments for public innovation policies By Takalo , Tuomas
  4. What is the productivity change of a university TTOs system at its early stage of development? Evidence from France By Claudia Curi; Cinzia Daraio; Patrick Llerena
  5. Public R&D Subsidies, Outside Private Support, and Employment Growth By Link, Albert N.; Scott, John T.
  6. Piracy in a two-sided software market By Rasch, Alexander; Wenzel, Tobias
  7. Digital Content Strategies By Daniel Halbheer; Florian Stahl; Oded Koenigsberg; Donald R. Lehmann

  1. By: Patrick Llerena; Valentine Millot
    Abstract: The benefits of innovations for firms strongly depend on their ability to develop complementary appropriability means, including intellectual property (IP) rights. This paper aims at assessing the interrelated effects of two types of IP rights, namely patents and trade marks, considering them in their core function as legal protection devices. Based on a supermodularity analysis, we show that the complementary relationship between trade marks and patents is not straightforward. Depending on the levels of advertising spillovers and depreciation rate, trade marks are found to be either complementary or substitute to patents. Based on a data set encompassing the IP activity of a sample of French publicly traded firms, we find that patents and trade marks are complementary in chemical and pharmaceutical sectors, but substitute in high-tech business sectors (computer products and electrical equipment).
    JEL: O32 O34 L10
    Date: 2013
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2013-01&r=ipr
  2. By: Ernst, Christof; Richter, Katharina; Riedel, Nadine
    Abstract: This paper examines the impact of tax incentives on corporate research and development (R&D) activity. Traditionally, R&D tax incentives have been provided in the form of special tax allowances and tax credits. In recent years, several countries moreover reduced their income tax rates on R&D output. Previous papers have shown that all three tax instruments are effective in raising the quantity of R&D related activity. We provide evidence that, beyond this quantity effect, corporate taxation also distorts the quality of R&D projects, i.e. their innovativeness and revenue potential. Using rich data on corporate patent applications to the European patent office, we find that a low tax rate on patent income is instrumental in attracting innovative projects with a high earnings potential and innovation level. The effect is statistically significant and economically relevant and prevails in a number of sensitivity checks. R&D tax credits and tax allowances are in turn not found to exert a statistically significant impact on project quality. --
    Keywords: corporate taxation,research and development,micro data
    JEL: H3 H7 J5
    Date: 2013
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fziddp:662013&r=ipr
  3. By: Takalo , Tuomas (Bank of Finland Research)
    Abstract: Economic interest in innovation policy largely arises from the fundamental importance of innovation to social welfare and from inefficiencies in innovation in a competitive market environment. As a result, a wide variety of public innovation policies are used in practice. This study reviews the economic justifications for public innovation policies and compares the existing policy tools, paying particular attention to the Finnish innovation policy environment.
    Keywords: innovation policies; innovation; R&D; incentives; market failures
    JEL: G28 H25 O31 O34 O38
    Date: 2013–01–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:bofrdp:2013_001&r=ipr
  4. By: Claudia Curi (School of Economics and Management, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano); Cinzia Daraio (Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering, Universita' degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza"); Patrick Llerena (University of Strasbourg, BETA (Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée) and Observatoire des Sciences et Techniques (OST, Paris))
    Abstract: This paper assesses the performance in technology transfer operated by the French university system adopting a Malmquist approach within an inferential setting. It investigates an original and unique database of French TTOs over their first development time. We find an overall weak increase in productivity, driven by technology and organisational improvement related to a small number of TTOs. More specifically, most TTOs show a stable innovative behaviour (i.e. no significant technical change) and only half of the system experiences a decline in efficiency change suggesting the lack of one best business model able to fit the entire system. Finally, we find that, on average, the presence of university-related hospital dampens TTOs’ efficiency and TTO´s seniority has a positive effect on productivity, enhancing simultaneously efficiency and innovation
    Keywords: Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs; French University System; Malmquist Index; Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA); Bootstrap
    Date: 2013–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aeg:report:2013-03&r=ipr
  5. By: Link, Albert N. (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics); Scott, John T. (Dartmouth College)
    Abstract: In the aftermath of the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the employment effects of public subsidies have been scrutinized because of new emphasis on public accountability and transparency. In this paper we investigate conditions in which public subsidies of research and development (R&D) in small firms stimulate employment growth. We find, based on an empirical analysis of employment growth induced by U.S. Department of Defense Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program awards, that the stimulated employment growth is greater under two conditions: one, the presence of outside investors providing additional funding for the R&D, and two, when an exceptional amount of intellectual property is created by the publicly subsidized R&D. In addition to outside investors, other firms that make commercial agreements with the subsidized firm appear important for the employment growth of the subsidized firm. Cooperation between the small business doing the R&D and other firms is an important determinant of the commercial success of the technologies created with the support of public funds.
    Keywords: Public subsidy of R&D; Intellectual property; Employment growth; Entrepreneurship; Cooperation
    JEL: J21 L26 O31 O38
    Date: 2013–02–22
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:uncgec:2013_001&r=ipr
  6. By: Rasch, Alexander; Wenzel, Tobias
    Abstract: This paper studies the impact of software piracy in a two-sidedmarket setting. Software platforms attract developers and users to maximize their profits. The equilibrium price structure is affected by piracy: license fees to developers are higher with more software protection but the impact on user prices is ambiguous. A conflict between platforms and software developers over software protection may arise: whereas one side benefits from better protection, the other party loses out. Under platform compatibility, this conflict is no longer present. --
    Keywords: developer,piracy,platform,software,two-sided markets
    JEL: L11 L86
    Date: 2013
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:dicedp:85&r=ipr
  7. By: Daniel Halbheer (Department of Business Administration (IBW), University of Zurich); Florian Stahl (Department of Business Administration (IBW), University of Zurich); Oded Koenigsberg (Department of Marketing, London Business School); Donald R. Lehmann (Marketing, Columbia Business School)
    Abstract: This paper studies content strategies for online publishers of digital information goods. It examines sampling strategies and compares their performance to paid content and free content strategies. A sampling strategy, where some of the content is offered for free and consumers are charged for access to the rest, is known as a “metered model” in the newspaper industry. We analyze optimal decisions concerning the size of the sample and the price of the paid content when sampling serves the dual purpose of disclosing content quality and generating advertising revenue. We show in a reduced-form model how the publisher’s optimal ratio of advertising revenue to sales revenue is linked to characteristics of both the content market and the advertising market. We assume that consumers learn about content quality from the free samples in a Bayesian fashion. Surprisingly, we find that it can be optimal for the publisher to generate advertising revenue by offering free samples even when sampling reduces both prior quality expectations and content demand. In addition, we show that it can be optimal for the publisher to refrain from revealing quality through free samples when advertising effectiveness is low and content quality is high.
    Keywords: Information Goods, Sampling, Content Pricing, Advertising, Dorfman-Steiner Condition, Pricing, Product Quality, Bayesian Learning, News Websites
    JEL: L11 L15 L21 M21 M30
    Date: 2013–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zrh:wpaper:329&r=ipr

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