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on Intellectual Property Rights |
| By: | Yamaguchi, Isamu; Nagaoka, Sadao |
| Keywords: | patent examination, option value, claim, R&D |
| JEL: | C41 L21 O34 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:iirwps:08-07&r=ipr |
| By: | Rieko Aoki; Aaron Schiff |
| Abstract: | We examine third-party collective rights organisations (CROs) such as clearinghouses that license innovations on behalf of inventors when downstream uses require licenses to multiple complementary innovations. We consider two simple royalty redistribution schemes, two different innovation environments and two different antitrust rules. We show that in most cases CROs increase incentives to invest in R&D as they increase profits from licensing. However, incentives to invest of inventors who have the unique ability to develop a crucial component may be weakened. We also show that CROs may increase or decrease expected welfare, and are more likely to be beneficial when R&D costs are relatively high, and/or the probability of success for inventors is relatively low. |
| Keywords: | Intellectual property, licensing, collective rights organizations, anticommons |
| JEL: | L24 O31 O34 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hst:ghsdps:gd08-045&r=ipr |
| By: | Maria Pluvia Zuniga; Dominique Guellec |
| Abstract: | The increasing importance of licensing for innovation is supported by ample anecdotal evidence. However, statistics on this topic are scarce. The OECD, together with the European Patent Office and the University of Tokyo, carried out a business survey on the licensing-out of patents. The goal was to investigate the intensity of licensing to affiliated and non-affiliated companies, its evolution, the characteristics, motivations and obstacles met by companies doing or willing to license. The target population was patent holders: 600 European firms and 1 600 Japanese firms responded to the survey, in the second half of 2007. The results show that patent licensing is widespread among patenting firms: around one company in five in Europe licenses patents to non-affiliated partners, whereas more than one in four does so in Japan. The relationship between size of the firm and probability to license out is U-shaped: small firms and large firms are more likely to license out their patented inventions. In Europe, SMEs have more difficulties to license out their patents than large firms. The major barrier to licensing out patent markets is informational (identifying partners). Finally, we also find that more than one third of young European firms (born after 2000) deem patents as quite or very important to convince private investors and venture capitalists to provide them with funds.<P>Qui licencie des brevets et pourquoi? : Enseignements d’une enquête<BR>L’importance accrue des licences de brevets pour l’innovation est attestée par nombre d’anecdotes. Cependant, les statistiques sur ce domaine sont rares. L’OCDE, en partenariat avec l’Office européen des brevets et l’Université de Tokyo, a conduit une enquête sur les licences de brevets. L’objectif était de mesurer l’intensité de l’activité de licence avec les entreprises affiliées et non-affiliées (indépendantes), son évolution, ses caractéristiques, ses motivations et les obstacles rencontrés par les entreprises qui souhaitent licencier. La population couverte comprend les titulaires de brevet: 600 entreprises européennes et 1 600 entreprises japonaises ont répondu à l’enquête, conduite dans la seconde moitié de 2007. Les réponses montrent que les licences de brevets sont très courantes parmi les entreprises titulaires de brevets: environ une entreprise sur cinq en Europe, et plus d’une sur quatre au Japon, licencient des brevets à des partenaires indépendants. La relation entre taille de l’entreprise et probabilité de licencier est en forme de U: les petites entreprises et les grandes ont une plus grande propension à licencier leurs brevets. En Europe, les petites et moyennes entreprises rencontrent plus d’obstacles que les grandes lorsqu’elles souhaitent licencier. Le principal obstacle à la licence est d’ordre informationnel: identifier des partenaires. Finalement, on trouve aussi qu’un tiers des entreprises européennes nées après 2000 estiment que les brevets sont plutôt ou très importants pour convaincre les investisseurs et capital risqueurs de leur fournir des fonds. |
| JEL: | D45 O32 O34 |
| Date: | 2009–03–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:stiaaa:2009/5-en&r=ipr |
| By: | Nishimura, Junichi; Okamuro, Hiroyuki |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the “Industrial Cluster Project†in Japan initiated by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) in 2001 in terms of industry-university partnership (IUP), using original questionnaire data of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In this paper, we use the number of patent applications as the measure of both the performance of the cluster project and the industry-university partnership. Specifically, we test the following hypotheses: 1) The SMEs that participate in the cluster project apply for more patents than those that do not. 2) The effect of participation in the cluster project on R&D productivity is enhanced by collaboration with national universities within the same cluster area. We collected the data of 229 R&D intensive SMEs with up to 300 employees through a survey conducted in 2005. We employ negative binomial regression to test how participation in the cluster project affects R&D productivity, controlling for firm characteristics such as the number of employees, R&D intensity, the number of IUP projects, the dummy variable for collaboration with national universities, the dummy variable for joint R&D, the dummy variable for collaboration within cluster regions, and industry dummies. Moreover, we estimate the treatment effect model and the instrumental variables (IV) regression, considering the possibility that participation in a cluster project is endogenous. We use firm age as an instrumental variable because the cluster project aims at attracting start-ups and young firms. The estimation results can be summarized as follows. First, participation in the cluster projects alone does not affect patent application. Rather, local firms collaborating with partners outside the cluster show higher R&D productivity in general. Second, the cluster participants apply for more patents when they collaborate with national universities in the same cluster region. Further results reveal that, in this case, the quality of applied patents measured by the average number of claims does not significantly decrease, which is not in line with the argument that cluster firms are subject to administrative pressures to show off the performance of the cluster projects. |
| Keywords: | Industrial cluster, Industry-university partnership (IUP), Small and medium enterprise (SME), R&D, Patent, Japan |
| JEL: | O23 O32 O38 R38 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:ccesdp:4&r=ipr |
| By: | Valentine Millot |
| Abstract: | Non-technological innovation is a major factor of competitiveness and productivity growth in the economy, notably in the service industries. However, the measurement of non-technological innovation and of innovation in the service industries is currently very poor, as traditional data sources like R&D or patents do not apply to these types of innovations. This document presents a strong candidate for quantifying non-technological innovation: trademark data. Trademarks constitute a rich and easily accessible source of data. Besides, several studies have shown that they are highly correlated with various innovation variables (patents, share of innovative sales). Lastly, trademarks have a large perimeter of application; they are present in almost every sector of the economy. Trademark data are then likely to convey information on two key (overlapping) aspects of innovation that are not well covered by traditional indicators: innovation in the service sectors and marketing innovation. This paper aims at presenting trademarks, their potential link with innovations and their main statistical properties, to see if they may actually serve as an innovation indicator.<P>Les marques comme indicateur d’innovations de produit et de commercialisation<BR>L’innovation non technologique est un facteur majeur de croissance et de compétitivité, notamment dans les industries de services. Néanmoins, la mesure de l’innovation non technologique et de l’innovation dans les services est à l’heure actuelle très insuffisante, les indicateurs traditionnels tels que les dépenses de R&D ou les brevets ne s’appliquant pas à ce type d’innovation. Ce document présente un candidat de poids pour quantifier l’innovation non-technologique: les données de marques. Les marques constituent une source de données riche et facilement accessible. Par ailleurs, plusieurs études ont montré une forte corrélation entre les marques et différentes variables d’innovation (brevets, part de ventes liées à l’activité innovante). De plus, le périmètre d’application des marques est très étendu, elles sont présentes presque dans tous les secteurs de l’économie. Les marques sont ainsi susceptibles de fournir de l’information sur deux aspects importants de l’innovation (se superposant en partie) que les indicateurs traditionnels couvrent mal: les innovations dans les services et les innovations de commercialisation. Ce document vise à présenter les marques, leur lien potentiel avec l’innovation et leurs principales propriétés statistiques, de manière à déterminer si elles peuvent effectivement servir d’indicateur d’innovation. |
| Date: | 2009–04–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:stiaaa:2009/6-en&r=ipr |
| By: | Uwe Cantner (Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Department of Economics, Chair of Economics/Microeconomics); Sarah Kösters (Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Department of Economics, DFG RTG 1411 "The Economics of Innovative Change") |
| Abstract: | The present paper investigates the effectiveness of R&D subsidies given to start-ups. Taking an aggregate view rather than evaluating a single program, we estimate the impact of R&D subsidies on start-ups' employment growth and their patent output. A unique data set on start-ups in the East German county of Thuringia allows us to focus on those start-ups that conduct R&D within the first three business years. We conduct propensity score matching to address the selection bias between subsidized and non-subsidized start-ups. We find that R&D subsidies lead to an increase in employment growth of about 66%. Furthermore, subsidized start-ups show a 2.8 times higher patent output. These estimates provide evidence for the additionality of R&D subsidies within the first three business years. Moreover, our analysis points to the special group of academic spin-offs which excels in the novelty of business ideas and patent activity. For some of these high-tech start-ups, no non-subsidized counterparts can be found. This might be attributed to the policy focus on academic spin-offs, which has led to a successful targeting of R&D support schemes. |
| Keywords: | R&D subsidies, start-ups, policy evaluation |
| JEL: | O38 L26 H50 C14 |
| Date: | 2009–04–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2009-027&r=ipr |