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on Intellectual Property Rights |
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Issue of 2021‒01‒25
five papers chosen by Giovanni Ramello Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale “Amedeo Avogadro” |
| By: | Mercedes Campi (Instituto Interdisciplinario de Economía Política de Buenos Aires - UBA - CONICET); Alessandro Nuvolari (Istituto di Economia, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna) |
| Abstract: | This paper revises and updates the Campi-Nuvolari index of intellectual property protection for plant varieties (Campi and Nuvolari, 2015). The new index has been updated and provides yearly scores for the period 1961-2018 for a total number of 104 countries, which have legislation on plant variety protection in force. The new evidence highlights the tendency towards more similar and stronger systems of intellectual property rights (IPRs) worldwide, regardless of individual characteristics of countries. The signing of the TRIPS and of trade agreements with TRIPS-Plus provisions are major drivers of this process. In addition, certain features of countries such as the regulatory environment, the level of human capital, the importance of agricultural production, and openness to trade, are also signicant determinants of the evolution of IPRs systems. We conclude discussing other possible applications of the data. |
| Keywords: | Intellectual Property Rights, Plant Breeders’ Rights, Patents, Agricultural Development, International Comparison |
| JEL: | Q01 O31 O34 O50 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ake:iiepdt:202051&r=all |
| By: | BEKKERS Rudi; HENKEL Joachim; MAS TUR Elena; VAN DER VORST Tommy; DRIESSE Menno; KANG Byeongwoo; MARTINELLI Arianna; MAAS Wim; NIJHOF Bram; RAITERI Emilio; TEUBNER Lisa |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the technical and institutional feasibility of a system that ensures better essentiality scrutiny for Standard Essential Patents (SEPs). We first studied the state of the art on essentiality assessment in literature, court cases involving larger scale essentiality assessments, essentiality assessment in patent pools, and the Japanese Hantei for Essentiality advisory opinion. A patent landscape analysis of SDO declared patents was performed to assess their use as input to essentiality assessment mechanisms. Technical feasibility was assessed in a pilot experiment, in which a variety of assessors evaluated patents for their actual essentiality. Institutional feasibility was, among other means, assessed via a stakeholder workshop. Given (1) the observed interest in transparent data on essentiality of patents for standards, from implementers, patent owners and courts alike, (2) the potential benefits of such data for these parties and for the system as a whole, and (3) our finding that a system for generating such data seems both technically and institutionally feasible, we recommend policy makers to pursue the development and implementation of a system for essentiality assessments. |
| Keywords: | standardization, patents, essentiality |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc119894&r=all |
| By: | BEKKERS Rudi; RAITERI Emilio; MARTINELLI Arianna; MAS TUR Elena |
| Abstract: | The study presented in this report is carried as part of a larger study, which is the "Pilot project for essentiality checks of Standard Essential Patents". Part of that larger study was the execution of a patent landscape investigation. The main goals of this report are: To provide a patent landscape analysis of SDO disclosed patents (and what this implies for their use as input to an essentiality assessment mechanism). To analyse whether SDO disclosed patents differ from comparable other patents in quality (both technical merit and economic value). The starting point for this study is data that is self-reported by companies on the basis of their belief that these patents "may be or may become essential to an ETSI standard". |
| Keywords: | standard essential patents, patent quality, European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI) |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc121411&r=all |
| By: | Taubman, Antony |
| Abstract: | This paper charts the evolution and diversification of trade in knowledge that has taken place in the quarter-century since the WTO TRIPS Agreement came into force. Entirely new markets have come into being, potentially redefining the very character of 'trade'. The disruptive effect of digital technology has led to much of the content - formerly conceived of as 'added value' embedded in physical carrier media, traded and measured as 'goods' - can be traded in the form of specific licences that use IP rights covering the content that is increasingly accessed online in digital form. These new forms of exchange in valuable intangible content confront fundamental assumptions about the nature of trade and its interaction with the IP system, forcing a rethink of what constitutes the 'trade-related aspects' of intellectual property. The issues examined include the principle of territoriality of IP rights and the segmentation of markets according to national jurisdictions; the structuring of cross-border commercial exchanges into the two discrete categories of 'goods' and 'services'; the emerging disparity in regional trade agreements between provisions on digital IP standards and on digital products and e-commerce; and the significance of IP rights being treated as assets in investment treaties. Whatever formal or legal overlay is applied to these new trading arrangements - it is essential to understand that this is now trade in IP licences as such, rather than trade in goods that have an IP component as an adjunct or ancillary element. TRIPS came about at a time when economic growth theory incorporated intangible knowledge as an endogenous factor, rather than maintaining it as exogenous to models of growth. Trade policy must similarly work to incorporate an understanding of the trade in IP licences itself within cross-border commercial exchanges as an integral element of international trading relations: sale and licensing of IP rights can then be considered 'endogenous' to trade. This is essential for an accurate empirical picture of trade relations today, given the economic significance both of dispersed global value chains and of trade in 'pure' IP content as such particularly in the creative sectors. |
| Keywords: | intellectual property,trade in knowledge,digital trade,TRIPS Agreement |
| JEL: | F13 K10 K33 O30 O34 I18 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wtowps:ersd202014&r=all |
| By: | Iraj Daizadeh |
| Abstract: | Understanding the dynamics of patents and trademarks is a key aspect of tracking innovative progress/egress. This paper empirically explores the chronological Hurst exponent (CHE), an approach that calculates the Hurst exponent over an increasing duration of time windows to quantify long-memory dynamics, in the monthly numbers of United States patent and trademark applications from 1977 to 2016. The CHE is found to increase in a clear 3-period S-curve pattern, achieving persistence (Period 3: H~1) from non-persistence (Period 1: H~0.5). For patents, Period 2, the time-varying period, occurred over a span of 10 years (1980-1990), while it was much sharper (3 years) for trademarks (1977-1980). Based on these data, it is hypothesized that the rapid augmentation in exogenous variables (such as increasing R&D expenditure or specific policy initiatives (viz., Bayh Dole, Stevenson-Wydler) are the key impetuses behind the increase of persistency during Period 2. Post-1990s exogenic variables led to the maintenance of the high degree and consistency of the persistency metric. These findings suggest investigators should consider latent persistency when using these data and the CHE may be an important tool to investigate the impact of substantive exogenous variables on growth dynamics. |
| Date: | 2021–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2101.02588&r=all |