How markets will drive the transition to a low carbon economy

This paper investigates the driving factors behind the transition to a low carbon economy. Here, we offer a two-part analysis: First, we examine the factors leading to the current level of cleantech development. To do so, we examine the impact of country-level economic variables (real GDP, market return, and turnover) and country-level institutional variables on patent intensity. Results from this analysis show that cleantech patenting activity is fostered by a supportive institutional environment that promotes innovation and low-carbon development through carbon pricing policies, country-level public R&D expenditure and human capital. Second, we extend the notion of ‘path creation’ to map out different pathways for cleantech development on a country-level within a real options framework, and offer a corresponding valuation of cleantech patents. Our estimates of total wealth creation through the development of cleantech patents by 2050 range from US$10.16 to US$15.49 trillion dollars (13%–20% of the world GDP in 2017) with investment growth from US$2.93 to US$3.71 trillion (3.7%–4.7% of the world GDP in 2017). The results from our analysis suggest that market forces will drive the transition to a cleantech economy.     

Protecting Innovation Through Patents and Trade Secrets: Evidence for Firms with a Single Innovation

Abstract

This paper analyzes the use and effectiveness of patents and trade secrets designed to protect innovation. While previous studies have usually considered patents and trade secrets as substitutes for one another, we investigate to what extent and in what situations the two protection methods are used jointly. We identify protection strategies for single innovation firms and hence overcome the assignment problem of existing empirical studies, that is, whether firms using both protection methods do so for the same innovation or for different innovations. Employing firm panel data from Germany, we find fairly few differences between the determinants for choosing secrecy and patenting. Single innovators that combine both strategies, 39% of the group, tend to aim at a higher level of innovation and act in a more uncertain technological environment. Firms combining both protection methods yield significantly higher sales with new-to-market innovations, providing some evidence for a complementarity of the two protection methods.     

地理邻近与知识产权——基于中国1 331项新能源技术发明专利的实证研究

虽然远程交流技术快速发展，但现有研究表明专利发明在很大程度上仍依赖于信息的地理邻近。以中国1992-2009年的1 331个新能源发明专利为研究对象，运用Jung Wonn,Jaffe等的实验设计方法，研究了专利引证的地理邻近是否会随时间递进而增大。结果表明，个人、大学、公司及其它种类发明专利引证的地理邻近会随着时间变化而增大，而政府受到的影响较小。另外，由于区域城市分属不同省份，因此并不能证明区域专利引证的地理邻近也会随着时间变化而增大。     

分析师跟踪、内控有效性与科技型中小企业创新

基于2009-2017年创业板317家科技型中小企业数据，从发明专利产出视角，探究分析师跟踪、内部控制有效性与企业技术创新的关系。结果显示，分析师跟踪人数显著提升了企业发明专利产出，内部控制有效性在分析师跟踪人数与企业发明专利产出关系中起部分中介作用，且在融资约束程度较高的企业中更为显著。即企业内外部治理机制有效配合对科技型中小企业技术创新发挥促进效应，且该效应在企业融资约束程度较高时更为显著。     

A SURVEY OF THE ECONOMICS OF PATENT SYSTEMS AND PROCEDURES

The last several decades have seen increases in patenting activity worldwide, as well as growing issues related to patent quality. In response to these quality issues a recent patent literature has emerged, that investigates the behavior and incentives of patent examiners, applicants, and third parties. In this paper, we provide an overview of patent procedures, patent systems and a survey of the new economic literature on patent systems. Both theoretical and empirical papers are considered. Policy implications coming from this literature are presented.     

Bennet Woodcroft and the value of English patents, 1617–1841

We examine the potentialities of a new indicator measuring the value of English patents in the period 1617–1841. The indicator is based on the relative visibility of each individual patent in the contemporary technical and legal literature as summarized in Bennet Woodcroft's Reference Index of Patents of Invention. We conclude that the indicator provides a reasonable proxy for the value of patents and that it can be usefully employed to shed light on the timing and scope of innovation during the Industrial Revolution. In particular, our indicator offers a suitable reconciliation between the patent records evidence and the Crafts–Harley view of the Industrial Revolution.     

Integrating nanotechnology into agri-food systems research in India: A conceptual framework

The implications of current trends in nanotechnology for the agri-food sector in India are assessed. Using published literature and patents data, a model to organize the information is developed through a specially designed database. The database allows mapping research themes in nanotechnology to specific sectors in the agricultural value chain to enable a rational assessment of the potential applications of nanotechnology in the agri-food sector, identifying and prioritizing research needs across the agricultural value chain, and assessing the environmental and societal implications of this emerging technology.     

THE REVOLUTION WITHIN: ICT AND THE SHIFTING KNOWLEDGE BASE OF THE WORLD'S LARGEST COMPANIES

This empirical article analyses the importance of information and communications technologies (ICT) in the technological diversification trend among the world's largest manufacturing firms during the 1980s and 1990s. The objective of the research is twofold: first, to emphasise the emerging differences among technologies when companies from different industries patent outside their traditional technological capabilities; secondly, to investigate whether the tendency among large companies from all industries to patent in ICT is distinctive when compared with the tendency to patent in other technologies. We find that technological diversification in large companies has clearly occurred in ICTs. Non-ICT specialist industries increasingly develop, rather than just utilise, the cluster of ICT-related technologies. We conclude that the development of corporate capabilities in the key technologies of the emerging ICT paradigm is more widespread than previously emphasised in the literature. One implication of this observation is that technological diversification and the information revolution may be related phenomena.     

The Non-Trivial Choice between Innovation Indicators

We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of five alternative innovation indicators: R&D, patent applications, total innovation expenditure and shares in sales taken by imitative and by innovative products as they were measured in the 1992 Community Innovation Survey (CIS) in the Netherlands. We conclude that the two most commonly used indicators (R&D and patent applications) have more (and more severe) weaknesses than is often assumed. Moreover, our factor analysis suggests that there is little correlation between the various indicators. This underlines the empirical relevance of various sources of bias of innovation indicators as discussed in this paper.     

THE GOVERNANCE OF KNOWLEDGE COMPOSITENESS AND TECHNOLOGICAL PERFORMANCE: THE CASE OF THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY IN EUROPE

Abstract

Knowledge compositeness measures the variety of scientific disciplines that it is necessary to command in order to generate new technological knowledge. The paper investigates the relations between the knowledge compositeness of the flow of patents delivered to the main European automobile companies and the evolution of their technological and product market shares. Compositeness confirms to be an important characteristic of private knowledge: its governance exerts strong and positive effects on the technological and competitive advantage of firms. Knowledge compositeness has strong effects on the mechanisms of knowledge governance and management of technology. Appropriate measures of knowledge compositeness make it possible to qualify the quantitative measures of the technological competence of firms based upon patents counts.