nep-ipr New Economics Papers
on Intellectual Property Rights
Issue of 2017‒11‒19
five papers chosen by
Giovanni Ramello
Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale “Amedeo Avogadro”

  1. Measuring Innovation with Patents when Patenting is Strategic By Jonathan F. Lee
  2. Matching Crunchbase with patent data By Carlo Menon; Gianluca Tarasconi
  3. Intellectual Property Rights, Multinational Firms and Technology Transfers By Sara Biancini; Pamela Bombarda
  4. The Competitive Market Value of Copyright in Music: A Digital Gordian Knot By Marcel Boyer
  5. The Three-Legged Stool of Music Value: Hertzian Radio, SiriusXM, Spotify By Marcel Boyer

  1. By: Jonathan F. Lee
    Abstract: I model a firm's decision to create an invention and, separately, her decision to protect that invention with intellectual property (IP). Because external forces, such as industry characteristics or policy regimes, can affect the innovation and protection decisions differently, the model predicts that innovation measures based on IP usage, such as patent counts, may not correlate with innovative effort. For example, the threat of competition generally has an inverse-U shaped relationship with observed patenting but has a normal-U relationship with innovative effort. In this case, the average quality of a firm's patent portfolio is a better proxy for innovation. I derive general conditions under which various patent statistics, such as quality-adjusted patenting or average patent quality, are useful proxies for how innovation responds to external influences.
    JEL: K11 L24 O31 O34
    Date: 2017–11–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jmp:jm2017:ple823&r=ipr
  2. By: Carlo Menon (OECD); Gianluca Tarasconi (OECD)
    Abstract: This note describes a procedure to match companies and individuals listed in Crunchbase, a new database on innovative start-ups and companies, with patent applicants and inventors reported in PATSTAT, the worldwide intellectual property database maintained by the European Patent Office. Given that neither administrative nor other unique identifiers are available in either of the two databases, the matching is based on a “fuzzy” procedure that exploits the available overlapping information across the two databases. A general overview of the resulting database completes the note.
    Date: 2017–11–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:stiaaa:2017/07-en&r=ipr
  3. By: Sara Biancini (Normandie University, UNICAEN, CREM UMR CNRS 6211, France); Pamela Bombarda (Université de Cergy-Pontoise, ThEMA, France)
    Abstract: Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protect firms from imitation and are considered crucial to promote innovation and technological diffusion. This paper examines the impact of IPR on import sourcing decisions of multinationals. We consider a framework in which firms offshore production of an intermediate good in a developing country. Firms can either decide to import the intermediate from vertically integrated producers, or from independent suppliers. In both cases, offshoring part of the production process embodies a risk of imitation. The model predicts that, under reasonable assumptions, stronger IPR encourage by a larger extent the imports of intermediates through vertical integration. Using U.S. Related-Party Trade database, we find empirical evidence supportive of the positive link between level of IPR and the relative share of imports from vertically integrated manufacturers.
    Keywords: Intellectual Property Rights, MNF, FDI, outsourcing, international trade
    JEL: F12 F23 O34
    Date: 2017–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tut:cremwp:2017-12&r=ipr
  4. By: Marcel Boyer
    Abstract: Pricing copyrighted works or assets so that creators are fairly compensated, while users can benefit from the digital economy given the information good character of such works has always been a difficult task. Doing it in the digital era is even more challenging. Striking that balance and determining the proper royalty level and the efficient rate base require that the competitive market value of such copyright in musical works and sound recordings be ascertained. I review some of the challenges and pitfalls in adequately framing the issues, and review an approach to infer the competitive market value of music in commercial terrestrial/Hertzian radio, satellite radio and interactive music streaming services from choices of operators in those industries. The resulting royalty formulas and payments are embedded into and discussed through the economics of public policy towards culture (the elephant in the room). An Appendix presents the main characteristics of music copyright structures in different jurisdictions.
    Keywords: Music copyrights,Intellectual property,
    Date: 2017–10–30
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cir:cirwor:2017s-14&r=ipr
  5. By: Marcel Boyer
    Abstract: Pricing copyrighted works or assets has always been a difficult task given the information good character of such works. Doing it in the digital era is even more challenging. This paper proposes an approach to infer the respective competitive market value of copyrights in music from choices made by operators of Hertzian radio, satellite radio (SiriusXM), and interactive music streaming services (Spotify). Although the inferred music values are rather similar, they need not be equal or even close as business models and cost structures differ significantly between those music delivery technologies. Nevertheless the results suggest that rightsholders are significantly shortchanged and poorly served by the current copyright pricing framework.
    Date: 2017–10–30
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cir:cirwor:2017s-16&r=ipr

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