intellectual property

The paper sets out to review what is known about innovation in the financial service industries and discuss what effects patents will have on them.

The report argues that patents for inventions are at the crossroad of law, technology and economies, with the patent system resting on two fundamental assumptions. The Patent System is as solid as the assumptions on which it rests, the report says, and it will stay effective in its purpose only if it keeps adjusting to change in the technical, social and political sphere.

The report offers a simple taxonomy of strategies that firms use to cope with weak property rights. The authors go beyond taxonomy by showing when a particular strategy works.

The report addresses the incentives to disclose information about an innovation that a firm has elected not to patent. By comparing the equilibrium level of disclosure with the level that maximizes total surplus, the author shows that there may be too much or too little disclosure in equilibrium.

The report discusses how the U.S. patent system has undergone a profound shift over the past two decades. The strength of patent protection has been dramatically bolstered and both large and small firms devoting considerably more effort to seeking patent protection and defending their patents in court.

The authors carried out an extensive inquiry to assess the potential impact of Internet file-sharing capabilities on the business models of copyright owners and holders. The report calls upon the players to consider new, productive solutions and business models that support profitable, legal access to intellectual property via digital media.

This paper outlines the utilitarian theory and objectives of the U.S. patent system, how the system has been applied to agricultural biotechnology, the “patent thicket” that has resulted, and the general pro-patent orientation of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

This paper analyzes the effects of different sources of R&D funding and patent office attributes on the patenting process. The empirical estimation is based on four major industries – electronics, chemical and biology, transportation and aeronautics – for the time period 1976-1998.

The European-wide survey delves into the attitudes and approaches major corporations have towards intellecutal property.

The author identifies some of the factors that may influence the level of royalty rate in such a situation of patent negotiations.