| Abstract: |
It is more than 25 years since the authors of the Yale and Carnegie surveys
studied how firms seek to protect the rents from innovation. In this paper, we
revisit that question using a nationally representative sample of firms over
the period 2008-2015, with the goal of updating and extending a set of
stylized facts that has been influential for our understanding of the
economics of innovation. There are five main findings. First, while patenting
firms are relatively uncommon in the economy, they account for an overwhelming
share of R&D spending. Second, firms consider utility patents less important
on average than other forms of IP protection, like trade secrets, trademarks,
and copyrights. Third, industry differences explain a great deal of the level
of firms’ engagement with IP, with high-tech firms on average being more
active on all forms of IP. Fourth, we find no significant differences in the
use of IP strategies across firms at different points of their life cycle.
Lastly, unlike age, firms of different size appear to manage IP significantly
differently. On average, larger firms tend to engage much more extensively in
the protection of IP, and this pattern cannot be easily explained by
differences in the type of R&D or innovation produced by a firm. We also
discuss the implications of these findings for innovation research and policy. |