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on Intellectual Property Rights |
| By: | Nicolas van Zeebroeck (Centre Emile Bernheim, Solvay Business School, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels.); Bruno van Pottelsberghe (Centre Emile Bernheim, Solvay Business School, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, DULBEA, Université Libre de Bruxelles and ECARES, Université Libre de Bruxelles.); Dominique Guellec (OECD -DSTI, Paris.) |
| Abstract: | The sharp increase in academic patenting over the past 20 years raises important issues regarding the generation and diffusion of academic knowledge. Three key questions may be raised in this respect: What is behind the surge in academic patenting? Does patenting affect the quality and quantity of universities' scientific output? Does the patent system limit the freedom to perform academic research? The present paper summarizes the existing literature on these issues. The evidence suggests that academic patenting has only limited effects on the direction, pace and quality of research. A virtuous cycle seems to characterise the patent-publication relationship. Secondly, scientific anti-commons show very little effects on academic researchers so far, limited to a few countries with weak or no research exemption regulations. In a nutshell, the evidence leads us to conclude that the benefits of academic patenting on research exceed their potential negative effects. |
| Keywords: | Patent systems, Research Exemption, Academic Patenting. |
| JEL: | O31 O34 O50 |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:08-013&r=ipr |
| By: | Sudipto Bhattacharya (NLondon School of Economics, and CEPR); Sergei Guriev (Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm; Centre for Economic and Financial Research (CEFIR), Moscow, and CEPR) |
| Abstract: | We develop a theory of control rights in the context of licensing interim innovative knowledge for further development, which is consistent with the inalienability of initial innovator's intellectual property rights (IPR). Control rights of a downstream development unit, a buyer of the interim innovation, arise from his ability to prevent the upstream research unit from forming financial coalitions at the ex interim stage of bargaining, over the amount and structure of licensing fees as well as the mode of licensing, either based on trade secrets or via patenting. We model explicitly the equilibrium choice of the financial structure of licensing fees and show that the innovator's financial constraint is more likely to bind when the value of her innovation is low. By constraining the flexibility of the upstream unit regarding her choice of the mode of licensing of her interim knowledge, the controlling development unit is able to reduce the research unit's payoffs in such contingencies. This incentivises the research unit to expend costly e¤ort ex ante to generate more productive interim innovations. We show that such interim control rights can be renegotiation-proof. |
| JEL: | D23 K12 O32 |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cfr:cefirw:w0118&r=ipr |
| By: | Bronwyn H. Hall (of California at Berkeley and University of Maastricht); Alessandro Maffioli (Inter-American Development Bank) |
| Abstract: | The paper surveys impact evaluations of government Technology Development Funds (TDF) in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Panama. All the evaluations were done at the recipient (firm) level using data from innovation surveys, industrial surveys, and administrative records of the granting units, together with quasi-experimental econometric techniques to minimize the effects of any selection bias. TDF effectiveness is found to depend on the financing mechanism used, on the presence of non-financial constraints, on firm-university interaction, and on the characteristics of the target beneficiaries. The surveyed evaluations considered four levels of potential impact: R&D input additionality, behavioural additionality, increases in innovative output, and improvements in performance. The evidence suggests that TDF do not crowd out private investment and that they positively affect R&D intensity. In addition, participation in TDF induces a more proactive attitude of beneficiary firms towards innovation activities. However, the analysis does not find much statistically significant impact on patents or new product sales and the evidence on firm performance is mixed, with positive results in terms of firm growth, but little corresponding positive impact on measures of firm productivity. |
| Keywords: | Innovation and R&D, Policy Evalution |
| JEL: | O32 O38 |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:ovewps:0108&r=ipr |
| By: | Fershtman, Chaim; Gandal, Neil |
| Abstract: | The open source model is a form of software development with source code that is typically made available to all interested parties. At the core of this process is a decentralized production process: open source software development is done by a network of unpaid software developers. Using data from Sourceforge.net, the largest repository of Open Source Software (OSS) projects and contributors on the Internet, we construct two related networks: A Project network and a Contributor network. Knowledge spillovers may be closely related to the structure of such networks, since contributors who work on several projects likely exchange information and knowledge. Defining the number of downloads as output we finds that (i) additional contributors are associated with an increase in output, but that additional contributors to projects in the giant component are associated with greater output gains than additional contributors to projects outside of the giant component; (ii) Betweenness centrality of the project is positively associated with the number of downloads. (iii) Closeness centrality of the project appears also to be positively associated with downloads, but the effect is not statistically significant over all specifications. (iv) Controlling for the correlation between these two measures of centrality (betweenness and closeness), the degree is not positively associated with the number of downloads. (v) The average closeness centrality of the contributors that participated in a project is positively correlated with the success of the project. These results suggest that there are positive spillovers of knowledge for projects occupying critical junctures in the information flow. When we define projects as connected if and only if they had at least two contributors in common, we again find that additional contributors are associated with an increase in output, and again find that this increase is much higher for projects with strong ties than other projects in the giant component. |
| Keywords: | Microstructure of Collaboration; network; open source |
| JEL: | L17 |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6789&r=ipr |
| By: | Jashim Uddin Ahmed (North South University, Bangladesh) |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this article is to define and discuss technology transfer via science parks or subsidiries companies in the context of higher education. Examples of university technology transfer will be given, and issues surrounding the topic will be discussed here. In the knowledge economy, university technology transfer activities are increasingly crucial as a source of regional and national economic development and revenue for the university. We have discussed here two UK universities technology transfer and their invovement in the local and regioanl economy in details. |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aiu:abewps:57&r=ipr |
| By: | Nobuo Kobayashi (School of Economics, Kwansei Gakuin University) |
| Abstract: | This study mainly investigated two issues: firstly, the existence of a positive relationship between the accumulation of knowledge stocks in regional industries and their value addition, and secondly, the spillover effects of knowledge stocks from the central cities to the surrounding regions, by using patent data as knowledge stock indicators. The empirical result suggests that there are positive impacts of knowledge accumulation to value addition, and there are positive spillover effects to the surrounding regions. The spillover effects are especially clearer when the creators of knowledge stocks are diversified in central cities, and when the industrial structure of surrounding regions is similar to the central cities. |
| Keywords: | knowledge accumulation, patent, spillover effect, regional industry |
| JEL: | O18 O34 R11 R15 |
| Date: | 2008–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kgu:wpaper:39&r=ipr |