Are we running out of new ideas? A look at patents and R&D (original) (raw)

A policy insight into the R&D–patent relationship

Research Policy, 2009

This paper investigates whether patent counts can be taken as indicators of macroeconomic innovation performance. The empirical model explicitly accounts for the two components of patenting output: research productivity and patent propensity. The empirical analysis aims at explaining the 'correct' number of priority filings in 34 countries. It confirms that the two components play a substantial role as witnessed by the impact of the design of several policies, namely education, intellectual property and science and technology policies. A major policy implication relates to the design of patent systems, which ultimately induces, or allows for, aggressive patenting strategies.

The Value of Patents as Indicators of Inventive Activity

1986

This paper summarizes a number of studies which use patent data to examine different aspects of technological change. It describes our finn level data set construction effort; reports on the relationship between R&D expenditures and the level of patenting; analyzes the relationship between patents, R&D, and the stock market value of firms; reports on the estimation of the value of patent rights based on European patent renewal data; and describes the use of patent data to estimate the importance of R&D spillovers. It concludes that patent data represent a valuable resource for the analysis of technological change. They can be used to study longer-run interfirm differences in inventive activity and as a substitute for R&D data where they are not available in the desired detail. It is possible also to use a firm's distribution of patenting by field to infer its position in "technological space" and use it in turn to study how R&D spills over from one firm to another. Moreover, patent renewal data, which are also becoming available in the U.S., allow one to construct more relevant "quality weighted" inventive t•outputu measures.

Patents and R and D at the Firm Level: A First Look

1980

This is a first report from a larger study of inventive activity of U.S. firms and some of its consequences. It reports on the relationship between patents applied for and R&D expenditures based on data for 121 large corporations covering the 1968-1975 period. The main conclusion is that there is a statistically significant relationship between a firm's R&D expenditures and the number of patents it applied for and receives. This relationship is very strong in the cross-sectional dimension (squared partial correlations of .8 or higher). It is weaker in the within-firm time-series dimension (partial r2's of .2 to .3). Attempts to fit an unconstrained distributed lag relationship yields only significant coefficients for the first and last terms in the lag structure, indicating both a quick response of patenting to changes in R&D and a small but persistent effect of past R&D, the truncation of this long lag being reflected in a significant coefficient for R&D lagged five years. In spite of these difficulties, patent counts do measure something systematic and hence are worthy of further study.

On the Origins of the Worldwide Surge in Patenting: An Industry Perspective on the R&D-Patent Relationship

Social Science Research Network, 2013

This paper decomposes the R&D-patent relationship at the industry level to shed light on the sources of the worldwide surge in patent applications. The empirical analysis is based on a unique dataset that includes 5 patent indicators computed for 18 industries in 19 countries covering the period from 1987 to 2005. The analysis shows that variations in patent applications reflect not only variations in research productivity but also variations in the appropriability and filing strategies adopted by firms. The results also suggest that the patent explosion observed in several patent offices can be attributed to the greater globalization of intellectual property rights rather than to a surge in research productivity.

R&D and Patents: Which Way Does the Causality Run?

2001

From cross-sectional data of 460 firms that responded to both the 1988 and the 1992 Dutch innovation surveys we have reexamined the causality direction between R&D and patents, using data on contemporaneous and four-year lagged patent applications and R&D expenditures. The two equations have been estimated jointly assuming a bivariate conditional distribution between the two variables, one being discrete and

The R&D-patent relationship: An industry perspective

2010

Abstract: This paper aims at contributing to the literature on the relationship between research efforts and patent counts. It is claimed that the" propensity-to-patent" should be split into an" appropriability propensity" and a" strategic propensity". The empirical contribution is based on a unique panel dataset composed of 18 industries in 19 countries over 19 years, and relies on five alternative patent indicators. The results confirm that the distinction between the two types of propensity matter. The sharp increase in patenting observed in ...

Understanding Patents: The Role Of R&D Funding Sources and the Patent Office

Economics of Innovation and New Technology, 2003

This paper analyzes the effects of different sources of R&D funding and patent office attributes on the patenting process. Another important contribution is modeling the effect of a random delay in the 'pendency' time as a stochastic process and quantifying its effect on patenting. The empirical estimation is based on four major industries-electronics, chemical and biology, transportation and aeronautics-for the time period 1976-1998. The primary results are: first, the source of R&D funding as well as performer (academic, federal and industry) has a differential effect on patenting. Second, the effects of some types of R&D and spillovers are different post-1990. Third, in the short run patenting is heavily influenced by patent office attributes. The state level analysis sheds light on the differing role of the federal government as an R&D performed and as a source of R&D funds for industry. The results contribute to a better understanding of the shortcomings in the formulation of science indicators.

Patents and Economic Growth in the Long Term. A Quantitative Approach

Brussels Economic Review, 2009

The work is a quantitative analysis on the relationship between technology and economic development from data on patents from over twenty countries from the beginning of the 19th century till the end of the twentieth century. The cross section regressions between patents and per capita income show a high correlation between both variables and allow the positive effect of technological innovation on economic development to be seen. The regressions between the time series of patent applications in Spain between 1826 and 1985 and some economic variables indicate in similar fashion that there is a positive correlation between both variables, especially between patents and Gross Fixed Capital Formation.

Research Productivity and Patent Quality: Measurement with Multiple Indicators

Sticerd Economics of Industry Papers, 2002

We analyse the determinants of the decline in measured research productivity (the patent/R&D ratio) using panel data on manufacturing firms in the U.S. for the period 1980-93. We focus on three factors: the level of demand, the quality of patents, and technological exhaustion. We first develop an index of patent 'quality' using detailed information on patents in the U.S. in seven technology fields. Using a factor model, we construct a minimum-variance index based on four patent characteristics and show that using multiple indicators substantially reduces the measured variance in quality. We then show that research productivity at the firm level is negatively related to the patent quality index and the level of demand, as predicted by an optimizing model of R&D, and positively related to the stock market valuation of patented innovations held by firms.