| By: |
Gallardo, R. Karina;
McCluskey, Jill J.;
Rickard, Bradley J.;
Akhundjanov, Sherzod B. |
| Abstract: |
This research is motivated by the sharp increase in the number of patented
fruit varieties developed by breeding programs at public universities in the
United States. Such varieties are licensed to growers as a way to generate
revenue for universities through the use of fees and royalties. Although the
use of fees and royalties for patents has been well discussed in the economic
literature, there is very little empirical work that examines these questions
for varietal innovations in agriculture. Horticultural variety innovations are
particularly interesting as they typically involve a demand-enhancing
innovation rather than a cost-inducing innovation, and because, in most cases,
the new varieties are only intended to replace a small share of production
dedicated to existing varieties. We found evidence that fixed-fees under an
exclusive contract was the most profitable for growers. For the innovator, the
most profitable scheme was the exclusive per-box royalty contract. Our
findings on potential profits for both adopters and innovators signal that
exclusive contracting would outperform the non-exclusive licensing schemes.
Given that the innovations are occurring at land-grant universities and that
the technology is largely being distributed to U.S. growers, further work
might consider the net societal impacts of the various licensing strategies;
this would extend our analysis to consider the economic effects from licensing
for the innovator as well as the effects for producers. |
| Keywords: |
intellectual property, apple varieties, university innovators, Demand and Price Analysis, Marketing, Q13, |
| Date: |
2016 |
| URL: |
http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:235940&r=ipr |