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on Intellectual Property Rights |
| By: | Gilbert, Richard |
| Abstract: | In their recent book, Against Intellectual Monopoly, Michele Boldrin and David Levine conclude that patents and copyrights are not necessary to provide protection for either innovation or creative expression and should be eliminated. The authors note the many flaws of the U.S. system of intellectual property protection and argue that other means are available to appropriate the benefits of invention and creative expression. However, the authors overlook important functions of intellectual property. Their efforts would be put to better use by more carefully analyzing policy proposals that may improve our system of intellectual property rights and have some potential to be implemented. |
| Keywords: | intellectual property, patent, copyright |
| Date: | 2010–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:compol:1141498&r=ipr |
| By: | Gilbert, Richard J |
| Abstract: | Very large awards and settlements for patent infringement have increased dramatically since the 1980s. A large fraction of these awards have occurred in the computer hardware and software industries. Complex technologies such as computer hardware and software require rights to a very large number of patents. One explanation for the large awards for patent infringement is the bargaining power of a patentee that has a credible injunction threat for a product that requires rights to multiple patents. This can lead to infringement damage awards and settlements that overestimate the patent’s contribution to product value. |
| Keywords: | patents, infringement, damages, innovation |
| Date: | 2010–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:compol:1141506&r=ipr |
| By: | Bronwyn H. Hall; Christian Helmers |
| Abstract: | Global climate change mitigation will require the development and diffusion of a large number and variety of new technologies. How will patent protection affect this process? In this paper we first review the evidence on the role of patents for innovation and international technology transfer in general. The literature suggests that patent protection in a host country encourages technology transfer to that country but that its impact on innovation and development is much more ambiguous. We then discuss the implications of these findings and other technology-specific evidence for the diffusion of climate change-related technologies. We conclude that the “double externality” problem, that is the presence of both environmental and knowledge externalities, implies that IP may not be the ideal and cannot be the only policy instrument to encourage innovation in this area and that the range and variety of green technologies as well as the need for local adaptation of technologies means that patent protection may be neither available nor useful in some settings. |
| Keywords: | Climate change; intellectual property; innovation; technology transfer |
| JEL: | D1 I2 O1 O3 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2010-23&r=ipr |
| By: | Philip Leifeld (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn); Sebastian Haunss (Department of Politics and Management, University of Konstanz) |
| Abstract: | The study of policy discourse comprises actor-centered and content-oriented approaches. We attempt to close the gap between the two kinds of approaches by introducing a new methodology for the analysis of political discourse called Discourse Network Analysis. It is based on social network analysis and qualitative content analysis and takes an entirely relational perspective. Political discourse can be analyzed in a dynamic way, and the approach makes previously unobservable cleavage lines and alignments measurable at the actor level, at the level of the contents of a discourse, and a combined layer. We compare discourse network analysis with political claims analysis, a competing method, and apply both methods to the European-level discourse on software patents. Our results demonstrate how an anti-softwarepatent coalition was mobilized and how it gained control over important frames, while the well-organized pro-software-patent discourse coalition was not able to gain sovereignty over the discourse. |
| Keywords: | Software Patents, Intellectual Property Rights, Discourse Network Analysis, Social Network Analysis, Political Discourse, Policy Networks, Public Policy Analysis, Social Movements, Political Claims Analysis |
| Date: | 2010–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2010_21&r=ipr |
| By: | Chia-Lin Chang (Department of Applied Economics, National Chung Hsing University); Sung-Po Chen (Econometric Institute, Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam); Michael McAleer (Erasmus University Rotterdam, Tinbergen Institute, The Netherlands, and Institute of Economic Research, Kyoto University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of the three main channels of international trade on domestic innovation, namely outward direct investment, inward direct investment (IDI) and exports. The number of Triadic patents serves as a proxy for innovation. The data set contains 37 countries that are considered to be highly competitive in the world market, covering the period 1994 to 2005. The empirical results show that increased exports and outward direct investment are able to stimulate an increase in patent output. In contrast, IDI exhibits a negative relationship with domestic patents. The paper shows that the impact of IDI on domestic innovation is characterized by two forces, and the positive effect of cross-border mergers and acquisitions by foreigners is less than the negative effect of the remaining IDI. |
| Keywords: | International direct investment, Export, Triadic Patent, Outward Direct Investment, Inward Direct Investment, R&D, negative binomial model |
| JEL: | F14 F21 O30 O57 |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kyo:wpaper:721&r=ipr |
| By: | Chia-Lin Chang; Sung-Po Chen; Michael McAleer (University of Canterbury) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of the three main channels of international trade on domestic innovation, namely outward direct investment, inward direct investment (IDI) and exports. The number of Triadic patents serves as a proxy for innovation. The data set contains 37 countries that are considered to be highly competitive in the world market, covering the period 1994 to 2005. The empirical results show that increased exports and outward direct investment are able to stimulate an increase in patent output. In contrast, IDI exhibits a negative relationship with domestic patents. The paper shows that the impact of IDI on domestic innovation is characterized by two forces, and the positive effect of cross-border mergers and acquisitions by foreigners is less than the negative effect of the remaining IDI. |
| Keywords: | International direct investment; Export; Triadic Patent; Outward Direct Investment; Inward Direct Investment; R&D; negative binomial model |
| JEL: | C53 C22 E27 E37 |
| Date: | 2010–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbt:econwp:10/54&r=ipr |
| By: | Titus O. Awokuse (Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Delaware); Weishi Grace Gu (Graduate Student, Cornell University) |
| Abstract: | Using GMM models on a panel data of fifty-three countries, we examine whether stronger foreign IPR protection stimulates international transactions of U.S. multinational firms. The empirical results suggest that foreign countries that strengthen their IPR protection, especially those with strong imitative ability, can attract more international transactions from U.S. multinational firms. |
| Keywords: | export, FDI, intellectual property rights, GMM |
| JEL: | F23 O34 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dlw:wpaper:10-10.&r=ipr |
| By: | Lorena M. D’Agostino; Keld Laursen; Grazia Santangelo |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relationship between home and offshore R&D activities on the knowledge production of the investing home region. Debate is ongoing on whether R&D offshoring complements the R&D performed at home. In the light of increased offshoring of innovative activities to emerging countries, we explicitly focus on Brazil, Russia, India, China, Singapore and Taiwan. We suggest that complementarity should obtain, when home region and offshore R&D activities are dissimilar as well as when offshore R&D activities is about modular and less complex technologies. We ground our predictions on arguments related to geographical technological specialisation and reverse knowledge transfer from offshore locations to home regions within the more general open innovation trend. Using a theoretical framework based on the international business literature and the regional system of innovation perspective, we estimate a knowledge production function for a sample of 221 regions from 21 OECD countries with home region patent applications as the dependent variable. Our test supports our predictions on the complementarity between home region and offshore R&D. |
| Keywords: | Home Region R&D; Offshore R&D; Knowledge Production; Complementarity; Emerging Countries |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aal:abbswp:10-19&r=ipr |
| By: | Scotchmer, Suzanne |
| Abstract: | The open source movement evolved in the one industrial context where openness is not required by intellectual property law.1 Nevertheless, openness itself cannot be the driving force behind the open source movement. This is because openness can be achieved in many ways other than the GPL, for example, with proprietary licenses, or licenses that are even more permissive than the GPL, such as the BSD license. Early commentators explained this new development model by focussing on the motives of the programmer, such as to demonstrate skills. See the survey by Stephen M. Maurer and Suzanne Scotchmer (2006). But firms also participate in open-source collaborations, sometimes contributing significant resources (Joachim Henkel, 2006, Dirk Riehle, 2009). Doing so can be profitable even if the contributors are rivals in the market. The quality improvements or cost reductions provided by a rival’s open-source contributions may outweigh the deleterious effect of empowering the rival to be a better competitor. |
| Keywords: | open source, software development, general public license |
| Date: | 2010–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:compol:1116153&r=ipr |