Independent invention during the rise of the corporate economy in Britain and Japan1

Independent inventors accounted for approximately half of all patents in Britain and Japan by 1930, despite the rise of the corporate economy and the spread of industrial R&D. A mixture of patent renewal and historical citations data reveals that the quality of independent invention was high. Active markets for inventions created incentives for independents, especially in large cities like London and Tokyo, which dominated spatially. Alongside evidence for the US, the findings show that in countries with different patent systems and at varying stages of economic development, a key component of overall inventive activity originated from outside the boundaries of firms.     

Developing countries and the patent system: An economic appraisal

The economic arguments for patents are that: (i) they are a necessary incentive to inventive industry; (ii) they are a sufficient stimulus to technological innovation and investment; (iii) the monopoly privileges granted to the patentee are compensated for by the disclosure of technical information to society. The paper shows all three propositions to be of dubious validity in the developing-country context. At least five-sixths of patents in developing countries are in foreign hands, mainly transnational corporations, and thus bear no relation to the flow of domestic inventive activity. At least 95 per cent of patents in developing countries are never used and serve as a block to domestic production while increasing the market power of foreign corporations. Those patents actually in use impose substantial costs both through ‘transfer-pricing’ and restrictive clauses in licensing agreements. Finally, technical information in patent documents is of limited value to developing countries and could in any case be obtained cheaply in the absence of patents.     

The value of invention patents in China: Country origin and technology field differences

This paper improves renewal payment based patent value model by introducing unexpired patents into the model. We estimate value of the invention patents based on SIPO records in China and compare values of patents between local owners and owners from the U.S., Japan and European countries. The study reveals that patent value from Chinese owners is much lower than that of overseas owners. This larger value gap implies important difference in motive of the patenting and R&D quality between China and those technology intensive sources usually from economically advanced countries and regions. The model developed in this study is also applied to patent data in different technical fields, successfully differing technical sectors with higher value (e.g., machinery) and those with lower value (e.g., pharmaceuticals), in terms of China market based patent records. Both applications prove that the newly developed model can be an important analytical tool for providing classified patent value on different purposes, especially in case of China.     

Patenting activity and elements of market structure in the Dutch manufacturing industry

Summary On the basis of econometric analysis this survey shows how patent intensity (number of patents in relation to sales) is positively influenced by technological opportunity and expected profit, and negatively by industry size and concentration. In addition, it is investigated whether patents can be used as a proxy for both inventive and innovative activity. To this question no definite answer could be given. A contradictory relationship was found between the R&D/sales ratio and the patents/sales ratio, which in this case merely shows how research based on firm data and industry data can come up with very different results. A general implication is that for studies on the Dutch manufacturing industry the aggregation from firm level to industry level should be treated with caution.The author works for Corporate Development & Economics Department of Unilever N.V. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily coincide with those of my employer.This article is based on the dissertation that I wrote for the MA in Economics programme at the University of East Anglia (UK). I would like to thank Dr S. Davies, Dr B. Lyons, and G. Hockley Morley for their useful comments, Vanda Morgan for her help with the language and Eline Rossen for her help in finalising this paper. Any errors are mine.     

The value of Chinese patents: An empirical investigation of citation lags

China has been experiencing a substantial growth in patent applications. But is this increase accompanied by a similar increase in patent value? To assess this question, we examine the citation lag of Chinese patents as a proxy of patent value in comparison with patents from the US, Europe, Japan, and Korea. Our empirical analysis comprises a unique data set of 60,000 patents with priority years between 2000 and 2010. Utilizing Cox regressions, our results show that Chinese patents suffer from a large citation lag in comparison to international patents, indicating a lower value. This is especially true for patents filed domestically. However, we find empirical support for an increasing patent value in more recent patents. China shows a strong dynamic in the field of patenting and our results suggest that the gap between Chinese patents and international patents might narrow down in the near future.     

Independent invention in Italy during the Liberal Age, 1861–1913

This article examines the phenomenon of independent invention in Italy during the Liberal Age (1861–1913). It makes use of a new dataset comprising all patents granted in Italy in five benchmark years: 1864–5, 1881, 1891, 1902, and 1911. The following exercises are carried out. First, an examination is undertaken of the shares of independent, corporate, and foreign inventions and their evolution over time and across industries. Second, by exploiting the peculiarities of Italian patent legislation, which was characterized by relatively cheap fees and a flexible renewal scheme, the relative quality of independent and corporate patents is assessed. The results indicate that in Italy independent inventors made an important contribution to technological change in terms of number of patents, but the quality of their patents was significantly lower than that of firms and of foreign patentees.     

外商直接投资对我国自主创新作用的实证分析——基于区域层面的面板数据分析

本文利用我国区域层面的面板数据,分析了外商直接投资对我国各个省发明专利、实用新型专利和外观设计专利等三种专利的作用,发现外商直接投资不但没有促进各省的发明专利数量的提高,反而有抑制作用,外商直接投资对我国技术创新的作用主要体现在促进了我国实用新型专利和外观设计专利数量的发展上。在市场换技术的引进外商直接投资过程中,外商凭借技术优势和资本优势,控制了技术和市场,抑制了国内企业的研发行为。要建设创新型国家,提高我国企业的核心技术水平,必须引导我国企业加大研发投入,建立我国企业自主研发体系,提高国内企业的研发能力,同时利用内外资企业之间的竞争效应、模仿效应、产业关联效应和学习效应。     

Inventing social capital: Evidence from African American inventors, 1843–1930

Much recent work has focused on the influence of social capital on innovative outcomes. Little research has been done on disadvantaged groups who were often restricted from participation in social networks that provide information necessary for invention and innovation. Unique new data on African American inventors and patentees between 1843 and 1930 permit an empirical investigation of the relation between social capital and economic outcomes. I find that African Americans used both traditional, i.e., occupation-based, and nontraditional, i.e., civic, networks to maximize inventive output and that laws constraining social-capital formation are most negatively correlated with economically important inventive activity.     

Human capital inflow,firm innovation and patent mix

In this article, a theoretical model of heterogeneous firms is built that emphasizes how human capital inflow (HCI) affects a firm’s innovation. The model shows that when HCI increases, the cost of a firm’s innovation decreases, the relative innovation efficiency gap between any two patents decreases, and the quality of each existing patent increases, which makes firms produce more patents, improve the quality of innovation and reduce the skewness of the patent mix. Empirical tests with data from Chinese Listed Companies are consistent with the predictions of the theoretical model, and robust to various estimation specifications. Moreover, the impacts of HCI vary across different types of patents, that is, both the quantity and quality of invention patents increase with HCI, while the skewness of the patent mix decreases. However, there is no evidence that HCI influences utility model patents.     

The Role of Innovation in Upgrading in Global Value Chains

ABSTRACT

We examine the role of innovative efforts in industries from the perspective of global value chains (GVCs). We set up a simple model and empirically test it using patent and bilateral export decomposition data. The model shows that innovative activities assumed to decrease the cost of conducting high-skilled tasks can upgrade the position of the industry in GVCs. This is also supported by data on patents and GVC-related data from the OECD and the Asian Development Bank. The empirical results reveal that a higher number of patent applications are closely related to more production of intermediate goods rather than assembly.     

The lure of aggregates and the pitfalls of the patriarchal perspective: a critique of the high wage economy interpretation of the British industrial revolution

The new meta‐narrative of the industrial revolution contends that Britain was a high wage economy and that this itself caused industrialization. Contemporary inventions, although derived from scientific discoveries shared with mainland Europe, could only be profitable in the context of Britain's factor prices. Therefore, important inventions were only developed in Britain where they enabled access to a growth path that transcended trajectories associated with more labour‐intensive production methods. The criticism presented here concerns perspective and methodology. The account of the high wage economy is misleading because it focuses on men and male wages, underestimates the relative caloric needs of women and children, and bases its view of living standards on an ahistorical and false household economy. A more accurate picture of the structure and functioning of working‐class households provides an alternative explanation of inventive and innovative activity in terms of the availability of cheap and amenable female and child labour and thereby offers a broader interpretation of the industrial revolution.     

Innovation and Market Value in Newly-Industrialized Countries: The Case of Taiwanese Electronics Firms

The relationship between patents, research and development (R&D), and market value in newly industrialized countries is examined for a panel data of Taiwanese electronics firms. Empirical results show that the market value of electronics firms is strongly related to patent count and R&D expenditure in Taiwan. Controlling potential heterogeneity of patents and allowing the value of Tobin's q to vary across firms, the estimated results are quite consistent, which is encouraging for Taiwan's government as it has implemented many policies encouraging firms to commit to R&D. In addition, the significant and positive impact of the sales growth rate might refiect the expectation feature of the stock market.     

Technology transfer via foreign patents in Germany, 1843–77

This article analyses the spread of innovation in mid‐nineteenth‐century Germany using foreign patents as an indicator for technology transfer. It introduces a new dataset of over 1,400 patents granted in the Grand Duchy of Baden between 1843 and 1877. The data show that Baden's technology import via foreign patents from German and non‐German inventors was important. This technology transfer was broadly based, although technologies related to the textile and machine‐building industries are prominent in the data. The decision to file a patent in Baden was driven by competition and the risk of imitation. Using a gravity model with city‐level data, we find evidence that technology transfer through patents reflected existing trade links. The strong correlation between technologies filed by foreigners and domestic inventors provides further evidence that the risk of imitation fostered patent‐based technology transfer during the mid‐nineteenth century. Furthermore, we show that foreigners filed patents predominantly in industries that accounted for a high share of the workforce in Baden.     

基于专利技术宽度测度的外资在华合作专利价值研究——以生物技术领域为例

从专利价值的角度出发来看,较长的专利技术宽度意味着通过技术手段控制市场的能力较强,专利的价值也越高。本文应用专利技术宽度对外资在我国生物技术领域的专利申请进行测度,对比分析了外资合作申请与非合作申请专利价值,以及不同合作类型专利价值的区别,结论表明,合作型专利的价值较高,且企业间合作的专利价值较科研机构间合作的专利价值高。     

The Face of Invention: Skills, Experience, and the Commitment to Patenting in Nineteenth-century Victoria

This paper uses patent data from Victoria to examine the roles played by skill and experience in Australian invention during the colonial era. In addition to identifying a broadening involvement of Australians in inventive activity in the second half of the nineteenth century, this paper also provides evidence which indicates that technological creativity in Australia in this period did not depend on either the existence of a body of highly skilled workers or major advances in the stock of knowledge of which only they were cognizant. Rather, common sense and the acquisition of basic practical skills appear to have been the only prerequisites for inventiveness. Given the widespread availability of such skills in the colonies, the article concludes that the supply of patentable ideas in nineteenth-century Australia must have been fairly elastic.     

探析旧设备可变现价值在最低总费用法中的处理

在对多种更新方式进行技术经济分析时,可选的方法之一是最低总费用法。但是,在计算总费用时应该如何处理旧设备更新决策时的可变现价值是一个有争议的问题。本文严谨地推导了总费用计算公式,进而指出在计算旧设备继续使用、大修理和现代化改装三个方案的总费用时,应将旧设备的可变现价值视为投资,而在原型更新和技术更新两个方案的总费用计算中不予考虑。     

England's “Age of invention”: The acceleration of patents and patentable invention during the industrial revolution

Estimation of a varying parameter model reveals that the trend of patents issued in England accelerated markedly in 1757. Similar results are obtained when patents are weighted by the number of production processes in which the patented invention may be used. There is no evidence that the rules or regulations regarding patents changed around 1757, and investigation of the propensity to patent in individual industries, and of the industrial distribution of patents, does not reveal a systematic change in the propensity to patent. Therefore, an acceleration in patentable invention must have caused the acceleration in patenting. The increase of the growth rate of patenting preceded an increase of the growth rate of total factor productivity, suggesting a causal relationship. Additionally, the fluctuation of patents around trend is much smaller after 1757, which reflects a widely based increase in patentable invention. Finally, the 1762 to 1851 period was characterized by an increased growth rate of patents and invention per person; England had entered her “Age of Invention.”     

Knowledge spill-over from new to old industries: The case of German synthetic dyes and textiles (1878-1913)

We construct a data set of long-lived German patents of patent classes dyes (22) and dyeing (8) to measure the accumulation path of technological knowledge with respect to dyeing textiles. Using these data we show with a vector error correction model that in the German Empire inter-industry knowledge spill-over between the new chemical industry and the old textile industry created an upward circle of “endogenous growth.” The increasing demand for synthetic dyes of the prospering textile firms initiated further research and development projects of the chemical firms that led to new patents and via customer consulting and customer training to additional economic benefits of the textile industry.     

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.     

基于Delphi法和BP神经网络的技术预见模型研究

构建了基于Delphi法和BP神经网络的技术预见模型。基于专利分析提取高价值专利以期提供科学、客观的参考点;处理专家评价数据时,为充分考虑专家熟悉程度的影响引入性能指数概念,并运用熵权TOPSIS法评估专利技术综合得分;结合BP神经网络算法计算各技术评估得分,弱化权重计算中人为因素的影响,对比计算结果验证其可行性。以智能制造领域为例开展实证研究,对该领域重点专利技术进行评估,验证了模型的科学性和可行性。