Cross‐Border Intellectual Property Rights: Contract Enforcement and Absorptive Capacity

This article studies the cross‐border protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) as an outcome of a contract obtained through a Nash bargaining process between an innovative North and an imitative South. The level of disclosure required in such contract is higher, the more capable is the South in copying if bargaining breaks down. This raises questions about the suitability of universal IPR standards through a single contract. The threat of a penalty in case of non‐compliance can, however, reduce the outside option of more advanced countries and make a stricter IPR regime enforceable by harmonizing their interests with relatively less developed nations.     

Do innovative firms rely on big secrets? An analysis of IP protection strategies with the CIS 4 survey

Innovative companies have a variety of instruments at their disposal to protect themselves from imitators, and this paper investigates the determinants of the protection choices with a focus on highly innovative respondents. While the patent system's aim is that firms apply to patent their innovations, especially the most important ones, theoretical results in the existing literature suggest that large innovations will rather be protected by secrecy because of the legal uncertainty surrounding intellectual property rights. In line with the predictions of their model, our probit analysis conducted using data from the Community Innovation Survey 4 shows that, in the intermediate goods industry, small innovations are patented while secrecy is used to protect large ones. For very innovative small firms, the share of innovative sales in total sales has a negative effect on patent application. These findings support the view that many innovative firms regard patent filing as no more secure than secrecy, which therefore limits the diffusion of knowledge.     

论我国知识产权战略中的政府角色定位

提高知识产权的利用、保护与管理能力,已成为维护国家利益和经济安全的战略性武器。知识产权制度的非理性扩张,使得政府作用的介入成为一种必然。当前我国正处于紧锣密鼓的知识产权战略制定过程中,政府的角色定位宜比拟为孵化器,通过培育私权精神和促进经济效益,从国内、国际两个层面作出合理选择和战略安排,才能更好地促进我国知识产权战略的运用。     

Innovation or imitation? The effect of spillovers and competitive pressure on firms’ R&D strategy choice

In this paper a firm’s R&D strategy is assumed to be endogenous and allowed to depend on both internal firm characteristics and external factors. Firms choose between two strategies, either they engage in R&D or abstain from own R&D and imitate the outcomes of innovators. This yields three types of equilibria, in which either all firms innovate, some firms innovate and others imitate, or no firm innovates. Firms’ equilibrium strategies crucially depend on external factors. We find that the efficiency of intellectual property rights protection positively affects firms’ incentives to engage in R&D, while excessive competitive pressure has a negative effect. In addition, smaller firms are found to be more likely to become imitators when the product is homogeneous and the level of spillovers is high. Regarding social welfare our results indicate that strengthening intellectual property protection can have an ambiguous effect. In markets characterized by a high rate of innovation a reduction of intellectual property rights protection can discourage innovative performance substantially. However, a reduction of patent protection can also increase social welfare because it may induce imitation. This indicates that policy issues such as the optimal length and breadth of patent protection cannot be resolved without taking into account specific market and firm characteristics.     

关于股份公司经理层薪酬构成的思考

在现代股份公司中,随着股东结构的日趋分散,经理层已在相当大的程度上拥有了公司的实质性控制权,在这种格局下,股东财富最大化目标的实现,越来越取决于经理层的素质与能力。随着知识产权资本化,经理层在公司中同时拥有双重身份——知识资本所有者兼高级别雇员,这种双重身份决定了经理层的薪酬应由雇员薪金和知识资本报酬两方面构成,其中雇员薪金又可细分为生活保障薪金和风险薪金两部分。     

On the macroeconomic effects of establishing tradability in weak property rights

The New Economy is closely associated with computing & communications technology, notably the Internet. We discuss property rights to, and trade in, the difficult-to-define intangible assets increasingly dominating the New Economy, and the possibility of under-investment in these assets. For a realistic analysis we introduce a Schumpeterian market environment (the experimentally organized economy). Weak property rights prevail when the rights to access, use, andtrade in intangible assets cannot be fully exercised. The trade-off between the benefits of open access on the Internet, and the incentive effects of strengthened property rights, depend both on the particular strategy a firm employs to secure property rights, and the protection offered by law. Economic property rights can be strengthened if the originator can find innovative ways to charge for the intangible assets. The extreme complexity of the New Economy and the large number of possible innovative private contract arrangements make it more important to facilitate the use and enforcement of private individualized contracts to protect intellectual property than to rely only on standard patent and copyright law. Enabling law is one proposed solution. Current patent legislation in the US has led to costly litigation processes weakening the position of small firms and individuals in patent disputes. The property rights of such firms and individuals could be strengthened with insurance or arbitration procedures.JEL Classification: D21, D23, D52, D82, H54, K11, K22, K41, L11, L23, M13, O14, O33An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 9th Congress of the International Joseph A. Schumpeter Society (ISS), Gainesville, Florida, USA, March 28-30, 2002. The paper is part of the Nödfor project on Schumpeterian Creative Destruction, notably the exit and bankruptcy process, based at the Ratio Institute, Stockholm.     

行业知识产权风险与企业自主创新投资研究

基于2005-2007年广东省高技术企业调查数据,结合我国的知识产权制度和市场背景,首次从行业层面界定并衡量企业自主创新中的知识产权风险——知识外溢风险与知识产权法律风险,并实证检验了两种风险对企业研究与开发投资的影响。研究发现,知识外溢程度的提高并未降低企业的研究与开发投资,知识外溢的正外部性效应大于风险效应,而知识产权法律风险则不利于企业的研究与开发投资。最后,为企业的自主创新管理和知识产权管理提供有益的建议。     

NORTH–SOUTH TRADE WITH MULTINATIONAL FIRMS AND INCREASING PRODUCT VARIETY*

We present a model of North–South trade with multinational firms and increasing product variety. Firms engage in innovative R&D to develop new product varieties in the North, and foreign affiliates of multinational firms engage in adaptive R&D to learn how to produce product varieties in the South. We find that a shift to stronger protection of intellectual property rights in the South induces foreign affiliates of multinational firms to increase their R&D expenditures, results in a faster rate of technology transfer within multinational firms, and increases long‐run consumer welfare in both regions.     

Intellectual property rights and diaspora knowledge networks: Can patent protection generate brain gain from skilled migration?

This paper studies the mechanism through which intellectual property rights (IPR) protection can influence the impact of skilled migration on innovation activities in developing countries. We argue that knowledge acquired by emigrants abroad can flow back to their country of origin through diaspora networks. IPR protection in the sending country facilitates this channel by increasing returns to skills and encouraging workers to move into the innovation sector. An expansion of the innovation sector allows diaspora knowledge to be absorbed by a larger range of workers. Strong IPR enforcement therefore makes it more likely for brain drain to be transformed into brain gain.     

Uncovering asset stripping during China's privatization

This paper empirically studies the occurrence and extent of asset stripping via undervaluing public assets during the mass privatization of state-owned and collectively owned enterprises in China. Using three waves of a national survey of private firms, we provide evidence that state-owned and collectively owned assets were substantially underpriced, indicating the presence of corruption during privatization. Further analysis shows that the extent of underpricing is more severe in regions with less market competition or weaker property rights protection, and more pronounced for intangible assets such as intellectual property rights and land use rights. When comparing firm efficiency between privatized firms and de novo private firms, we find that the former group continues to enjoy considerable preferential treatments, yet significantly underperforms the latter, possibly due to continued government control and intervention. Finally, we provide evidence that insider privatization is an important source of corruption during the privatization process.     

Embracing invention similarity for the measurement of vertically overlapping claims

ABSTRACT

Clear and well-defined patent rights can incentivize innovation by granting monopoly rights to the inventor for a limited period of time in exchange for public disclosure of the invention. However, with cumulative innovation, when a product draws from intellectual property held across multiple firms (including fragmented intellectual property or patent thickets), contracting failures may lead to suboptimal economic outcomes. However, an alternative theory, developed by a variety of scholars, contends that patent thickets have a more ambiguous effect. Researchers have developed several measures to gauge the extent and impact of cumulative innovation and the various channels of patent thickets. This paper contends that mis-measurement may contribute to the incoherence and overall lack of consensus within the patent thickets literature. Specifically, the literature is missing a precise measure of vertically overlapping claims. We propose a new measure of vertically overlapping claims that incorporates invention similarity to more precisely identify inventive overlap. The measure defined in this paper will enable more accurate measurement, and allow for novel economic research on cumulative innovation, fragmentation in intellectual property, and patent thickets within and across all patent jurisdictions.     

The role of contracts and intellectual property rights in open innovation

Our exploratory empirical study, based on interviews and a survey of firms, addresses a number of questions on the role of formal contracts and intellectual property rights (IPR) in the context of firm-to-firm open innovation (OI). We find that firms active in OI have a very strong preference for the governance of their OI relationships with other firms through formal contracts. Also, despite the open nature of OI, firms still see IPR as highly relevant to the protection of their innovative capabilities. We find the degree of openness of firms, their formal legal attitude, and the competitive dynamics of their product market environment to be related to the preference of OI firms for IPR. Furthermore, the strength of firms’ internal R&D capabilities increases the positive relationship between openness and the preference for IPR.     

Endogenous strength of intellectual property rights: Implications for economic development and growth

The key institution that determines sustained growth in R&D-based growth models is the strength of intellectual property rights, which are usually assumed to be exogenous. In this paper we endogenize the strength of the intellectual property rights and show how private incentives to protect these rights affect economic development and growth. Our model explains endogenous differences in intellectual property rights across countries as private incentives to invest in property rights generate multiple equilibria. We show that the resulting institutional threshold offers an explanation for why the effect of a transfer of institutions from one country to another depends on the quality of the institutions that were imported.     

Trade policy mix: IPR protection and R&D subsidies

Abstract .  This paper analyses strategic R&D policy under circumstances where intellectual property rights protection resulting from firms' R&D investment is not perfect. By examining policy choices wherein a government chooses both R&D subsidies and IPR protection levels simultaneously, we show that it is optimal for a government to adopt sufficiently weak IPR protection and to subsidize R&D investments of domestic firms. Inducing R&D investment of foreign rival firms will increase the profits of domestic firms.     

Seize the state, seize the day: state capture and influence in transition economies

Data from the 1999 Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey is used to examine state capture and influence in transition economies. We find that a capture economy has emerged in many transition countries, where rent-generating advantages are sold by public officials and politicians to private firms. While influence is a legacy of the past inherited by large, incumbent firms with existing ties to the state, state capture is a strategic choice made primarily by large de novo firms competing against influential incumbents. Captor firms, in high-capture economies, enjoy private advantages in terms of more protection of their own property rights and superior firm performance. Despite the private gains to captor firms, state capture is associated at the aggregate level with social costs in the form of weaker economy-wide firm performance. Journal of Comparative Economics 31 (4) (2003) 751–773.     

业绩期望顺差、知识产权保护与绩优企业创新

研究绩优企业创新行为,探讨了产权性质与知识产权保护的情景效应,回答了企业组织是遵循“富则思安”的行为惯性抑或是“富而思进”的可能性。基于2011-2017年主板A股上市公司数据研究发现,业绩期望顺差显著抑制企业创新投入,且这种抑制作用在国有企业中更强,总体上绩优企业创新行为遵循“富则思安”的行为惯例。进一步研究发现,随着我国创新驱动发展战略的实施及知识产权保护制度的完善,知识产权保护能促进企业创新投入,且能有效降低业绩期望顺差对企业创新投入的抑制作用。这一作用机制在知识产权保护越强的情况下,越能引导绩优民营上市公司从“富则思安”向“富而思进”转变。     

基于TRIZ的战略性新兴产业技术创新方法研究

战略性新兴产业是技术突破与创新产品市场化深度融合的产业,技术创新对战略性新兴产业的发展尤为重要。TRIZ理论作为国际公认的重要创新方法之一,能够有效地解决战略性新兴产业技术创新中存在的主要问题。将TRIZ分析解决问题的创新思维方法嵌入到产业技术创新过程中,针对战略性新兴产业在发展过程中存在的技术范式不确定、知识产权及科研管理机制不健全、资源配置机制不合理等问题,从制约技术创新的瓶颈、路径分析、创新方案确立等方面探索战略性新兴产业技术方法问题,针对产业技术创新的萌芽期、成长期、成熟期,分别制定出合理的创新方案。     

How credit constraints affect small and medium enterprises' strategic employment decisions and employees' labour outcomes: Evidence from Vietnam1

This study makes use of rich firm-level and linked firm-employee datasets that span the 2009–2015 period in Vietnam to examine how SMEs' credit constraints affect their strategic employment decisions and employees' labour outcomes. Our results show that constrained SMEs enlarge total employment by employing relatively more temporary workers and paying their employees relatively lower wages than unconstrained borrowing firms. Meanwhile, discouraged firms, mostly informal businesses, do not behave differently from unconstrained counterparts. In order to maintain a stable employment portfolio, discouraged firms are relatively more willing to reward their employees with an overtime payment.     

Harnessing the Firm-specific Knowledge of the Maintenance Workforce for Organizational Competitiveness

This paper argues, with the support of the empirical data from five case-study firms, that maintenance workers can play a key role in advancing technology used by their firm and contributing to its long-term competitiveness. Maintenance workers can contribute their firm-specific knowledge which they gain from their experience of working with the equipment in two ways: by providing feedback on asset performance to other departments/firms who design, select or install new technology/equipment; and by making the newly introduced and/or existing technology more suitable to the working environment. Yet, this valuable potential of maintenance employees is rarely appropriated by firms, of which many are enthusiastically seeking additional competitiveness. If 'learning by doing' is an important way for firms to learn and to compete, then this wider role of the maintenance workforce should be harnessed by firms that seek long-term competitiveness.     

Heterogeneous Academic‐Industry Knowledge Linkage,Heterogeneous IPR,and Growth

Empirical evidence shows the existence of relevant spillovers from the stock of academic basic knowledge on industry. Interestingly, such spillovers are highly specific in that firms’ academic learning responds strongly to federally funded R&D in closely affiliated universities. Moreover, with the aim of enhancing such a technological transfer from academia to industry, the policy design of many OECD countries allows worthy academic ideas to be granted the same intellectual property rights (IPR) as industrial innovations. In distinguishing the stages of an R&D process within a dynamic general equilibrium model, this paper explicitly considers both industrial and government R&D efforts, with heterogeneous academic knowledge spillovers among industry lines. The results show that both the industrial R&D effort and the growth rate are spurred more by a “softer” IPR regime granted to academic ideas than by an increase in the industrial R&D subsidy.