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on Intellectual Property Rights |
| By: | Francesco Laforgia (Brescia University and CESPRI - Bocconi University, Milan, Italy.); Fabio Montobbio (University of Insubria and CESPRI, Bocconi University, Milan, Italy.); Luigi Orsenigo (Brescia University, CESPRI - Bocconi University, Milan, Italy, and The Open University, UK.) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we provide an introduction to some of the most salient aspects of the debate regarding the relationships between stronger intellectual property rights (IPRs) regimes and innovation in the pharmaceutical industry. We emphasize that, despite increased knowledge on the subject, little is known on the relationships between IPRs, innovation, and growth, especially as developing countries are concerned. We report on preliminary research on the patenting activities in Brazil using domestic patent data, rather than – as it is customary – international patents. Firstly, we show that the adoption of the TRIPs had substantial positive impact on the number of patent applications in Brazil, but that the great majority of these new patent applications have come from nonresidents, most likely as extensions of foreign patents. However it is too early to assess if this substantial increase in (foreign) patents is a permanent characteristic of patenting activity in Brazil. Secondly, the introduction of TRIPs has not changed the technological composition of patenting activity in Brazil, with one major exception, the growth of the share of the chemical and pharmaceutical patents, few years after the upsurge of patenting in other fields. |
| Keywords: | Intellectual Property Rights, Patents, Pharmaceuticals, Brazil, Developing Countries. |
| JEL: | O31 O34 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cri:cespri:wp206&r=ipr |
| By: | Harhoff, Dietmar; Hoisl, Karin; Reichl, Bettina; van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie, Bruno |
| Abstract: | One feature of the European patent system that is heavily criticized nowadays is related to its complex fragmentation and the induced cost burden for applicants. Once a patent is granted by the EPO, the assignee must validate (and often translate) it and pay the renewal fees to keep it in force in each country in which the applicant seeks protection. The objective of this paper is to assess to what extent validation and renewal fees as well as translation costs affect the validation behavior of applicants. We rely on a gravity model that aims at explaining patent flows between inventor and target countries within the European patent system. The results show that the size of countries, their wealth and the distance between their capital cities are significant determinants of patent flows. Validation fees and renewal fees further affect the validation behavior of applicants. Translation costs seem to have an impact as well. The important role played by fees suggests that the implementation of cost-reducing policy interventions like the London Protocol would induce a significant increase in the number of patents validated in each European country. |
| Keywords: | patent fees; validation fees; renewal fees; gravity model |
| JEL: | O30 O31 O38 O57 |
| Date: | 2007–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lmu:msmdpa:2073&r=ipr |
| By: | Maud ROUCAN-KANE; David UBILAVA; Pei XU (Department of Agricultural Economics, College of Agriculture, Purdue University) |
| Abstract: | The objective of this paper is to determine how the firm's infrastructure, the financial characteristics of a company (net income, sales), and the organizational structure (number of acquisitions, age of establishment of the firm) affect R&D investments in the agricultural sector. We use data for companies under the SIC codes for agricultural chemicals, and crop planning and protection. The results based on analysis of 69 observations of 12 firms revealed that firm's financial and organizational infrastructure does affect its R&D expenditures. Older and larger firms tend to spend more on R&D. During the last 17 years the R&D expenditures with respect to the sales of the company have been reduced. Finally, contrary to the expectations, previous year's profit margins are negatively correlated with the R&D over the sales ratio of the following year. |
| Keywords: | Manufactured Housing; R&D, agriculture, chemicals, crop planning, crop protection, agribusiness, expenditures |
| JEL: | A10 O32 Q16 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pae:wpaper:07-04&r=ipr |
| By: | Lorraine Uhlaner; Haibo Zhou; Sita Tan |
| Abstract: | Western economies are increasingly viewed as knowledge-driven (Audretch and Thurik, 2001, 2004). Knowledge plays a crucial role in determining firm innovation capability and in enhancing working life quality of knowledge workers (Corso, Martini, Pelligrini, and Paolucci, 2001). Previous studies show that knowledge is managed in a different manner in SMEs. It is identified that knowledge is created, shared, transferred and applied via people based mechanisms in SMEs. Although research and policy interest in knowledge management is beginning to grow for SMEs (Sparrow, 2001; Wong, & Radcliffe, 2000), still relatively limited attention has been paid to understand the specifics of knowledge management issues for SMEs and to KM’s contribution to innovation performance in particular. Furthermore, most of studies are conducted by using methods on either qualitative case studies or very small samples. The aim of this study is to provide a quantitative insight of the relationship between KM and innovation performance of SMEs based on a large sample of Dutch SMEs, as well as the role of innovation orientation in this relationship. Our findings indicate that knowledge management- external acquisition and internal sharing- contribute positively to exploratory innovation performance of a firm. A full mediated effect of innovation orientation is identified in the relationship between external acquisition and exploratory innovation performance. We discuss how KM contributes to innovation performance, using the perspective of absorptive capacity. Based on a literature review on absorptive capacity, an implicit relationship between knowledge management practices and building a firm’s absorptive capacity is identified. |
| Date: | 2007–12–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eim:papers:h200718&r=ipr |
| By: | Kurt R. Brekke (Department of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, and Health Economics Bergen); Tor Helge Holmås (Institute for Research in Economics and Business Administration, and Health Economics Bergen); Odd Rune Straume (Universidade do Minho - NIPE) |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of regulatory regimes on generic competition and pharmaceutical pricing using a unique policy experiment in Norway, where reference pricing (RP) replaced price cap regulation in 2003 for a sub-sample of off-patent products. We exploit a detailed panel dataset at product level covering a wide set of off-patent drugs before and after the policy reform. Off-patent drugs not subject to reference pricing serve as our control group. We find that RP leads to lower relative prices, with the effect being driven by strong brand-name price reductions, and not increases in generic prices. We also find that RP increases generic competition, resulting in lower brand-name market shares. Finally, we show that RP has a strong negative effect on average prices at molecule level, suggesting significant cost-savings. |
| Keywords: | Pharmaceuticals, Regulation, Generic Competition. |
| JEL: | I11 I18 L13 L65 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nip:nipewp:01/2008&r=ipr |
| By: | Jackie Krafft (GREDEG - Groupe de recherche en Droit Economie Gestion - Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis) |
| Abstract: | Who profits in the info-coms industry in the broadband age, and how? This paper looks at this question, decomposing the industry in terms of five complementary activities: (1) equipment provision, (2) network operation, (3) Internet access and service provision, (4) navigation and security provision, and (5) Internet content provision, which correspond to five different assets in the sense of Teece (1986). By focusing on two key stylized facts (SF1: “R&D and patent licensing are increasingly high in this industry, but the initiators of innovations have greatly changed over time”, and SF2: “Small, facilities-less companies emerged during the development of the Internet industry, but have generally performed badly as the industry has matured and broadband use has become widespread”) the paper analyses the robustness of Teece (1986) in its ability to provide a framework appropriate to the changes that have occurred in the broadband industry. The paper draws some lessons, and provides some new considerations related to the robustness of Teece’s framework. |
| Date: | 2008–01–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:hal-00203801_v1&r=ipr |
| By: | Hammar, Henrik (National Institute of Economic Research); Löfgren, Åsa (Department of Economics, Göteborg University, P.O. Box 640, SE 405 30 Göteborg) |
| Abstract: | We estimate firms’ probability of technological adoption based on an unbalanced firm level panel data set from four major sectors during the 2000-2003 period. Technological adoption is measured by environ-mental protection investments (EPIs), and we focus particularly on differences between the decisions to adopt end of pipe solutions and clean technology. We find that the probability of a firm to undertake investments in clean technologies to reduce emissions to air increases if the firm has expenditures for R&D related to environmental protec-tion (green R&D). We also find that firm specific energy expenditures contribute in explaining investments in end of pipe solutions, while this factor is not significant for investments in clean technologies. Furthermore, the results show that the two types of technologies are complements with respect to the investment decision, which indicates that policies that stimulate investments in one type of technology tend to affect investment in the other positively as well. In conclusion, pol-icy makers might want to contemplate environmental policy measures that stimulate green R&D in order to stimulate technological adoption. |
| Date: | 2007–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nierwp:0102&r=ipr |
| By: | André van Stel; Mickey Folkeringa; Joris Meijaard; Lorraine Uhlaner |
| Abstract: | This article investigates the relationship between knowledge management (KM), innovation and firm performance of smaller firms (less than 100 employees), based on a panel of more than 400 Dutch firms. Regression analyses explain the variations in sales turnover growth from various measures of KM strategies. We distinguish between KM input, throughput and output (or innovation) strategies. We find that KM input strategies related to knowledge acquisition are positively related to sales turnover growth. In contrast, we do not find a relation between KM throughput and KM output (innovation) measures and firm performance. The results emphasize the importance of both knowledge absorption and knowledge creation to the success of innovative efforts in small firms. This is an updated version of Scales-paper N200322. |
| Date: | 2007–01–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eim:papers:h200704&r=ipr |
| By: | Diewert, Erwin; Huang, Ning |
| Abstract: | The next international version of the System of National Accounts will recommend that R&D (Research and Development) expenditures be capitalized instead of being immediately expensed as in the present System of National Accounts 1993. An R&D project creates a new technology, which in principle does not depreciate like a reproducible asset. A new technology is however subject to obsolescence, which acts in a manner that is somewhat similar to depreciation. The paper looks at the net benefits of an R&D project in the context of a very simple intertemporal general equilibrium model and suggests that R&D expenditures be amortized using the matching principle that has been developed in the accounting literature to match the fixed costs of a project to a stream of future benefits. Of particular interest is the evaluation of the net benefits of a publicly funded project where the results are made freely available to the public. |
| JEL: | C43 C61 C67 C68 C82 D24 D42 D45 D57 D58 |
| Date: | 2008–01–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:bricol:diewert-08-01-18-09-24-04&r=ipr |
| By: | Jackie Krafft (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - CNRS : UMR6227 - Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis); Evens Salies (OFCE-DRIC - OFCE) |
| Abstract: | The innovative broadband Internet industry is characterised by inertia phenomena in terms of technology choice, as well as selection of Internet service providers (ISPs). Within the set of firms providing Internet, very often in Europe the incumbent operator has the lion’s share of end-customers and supplies the dominant technology. Focusing on the French case, this paper shows that although inertia on the supply side (partly due to the regulation process in itself), helps to explain the technology mix reached to date, a more complete picture of the inertia can be obtained when we consider the existence of costs faced by customers when switching between ISPs. We calculate these so-called “switching costs”. The closing section of this paper derives several implications in terms of policy. |
| Date: | 2008–01–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:hal-00203512_v1&r=ipr |