Sailing in all winds: Technological search over the business cycle

Business cycles modify firms’ incentives to innovate and the direction of innovation. By introducing a new measure of patent unconventionality this paper explores the impact of the business cycle on firms’ technological search strategies. We find that during upturns firms generate inventions characterized by a higher level of technological unconventionality. We also find that financially resilient and diversified firms produce more unconventional patents. While patent unconventionality is associated with technological impact and market value, firms extract more value by investing in unconventional inventions in downturns.     

Pre-empted patents,infringed patents and firms’ participation in markets for technology

In recent years, firms have increasingly contributed to and been confronted with a patent landscape characterized by numerous but marginal inventions, overlapping claims and patent fences. As a result, firms risk their patent applications to be pre-empted or to be infringed upon by rivals. While both aspects constitute major challenges for the appropriation of returns to inventive activity, extant literature suggests that participation in the market for technology might actually resolve or at least alleviate these problems. In this paper, we investigate the effect of pre-empted and infringed patents on firms’ engagement in in- and cross-licensing. Based on a sample of more than 1100 German manufacturing firms our results show that firms engage in in-licensing as a reaction to pre-empted patents and in cross-licensing if their protected IP was infringed upon. However, these effects vary depending on the fragmentation of technology fields and whether the firm operates in a discrete or complex product industry.     

German employee inventors’ compensation records: A window into the returns to patented inventions

This paper uses a novel data source, namely German employee inventors’ compensation records compiled in compliance with the German Employee Invention Act of 1957 to estimate the returns to patented inventions. In contrast to patent value estimates obtained from surveys and renewals, these records primarily provide a measure of the value of the use of the invention and not the value of patent protection. While indicators of patent value explain much of the variation in these patent value estimates, the values are only weakly correlated with the estimated renewal value of the patents. The distribution of patent value from these records is highly skew, with the vast majority of the returns earned by a select set of high valued patents, consistent with finding for other measures of patent value. The value estimates however are considerably lower than recent survey estimates with most of the patents having little or no realized value, suggesting that the returns appropriated through the use of an invention may represent only a fraction of the value of a patented invention.     

专利创新与区域经济增长关联机制的空间计量经济分析

运用空间计量经济学的空间自相关Moran指数模型、空间滞后模型和空间误差模型，利用省域专利授权总数及三种类型的专利授权与经济增长数据，对我国31个省域专利创新与区域经济增长的关联机制进行了空间计量经济实证分析。     

A novel technology-industry concordance table based on linked inventor-establishment data

Mapping technologies into industries is frequently required in empirical innovation studies, but many concordances only provide coarse mappings. We develop a novel concordance between industries and technologies making use of linked inventor-employee data for a large sample of German patents filed at the European Patent Office between 1999 and 2011. Inventors listed on these patents are matched and disambiguated with German social security records. Employment data recorded in this database include detailed industry codes describing the industrial activities of the inventors’ establishments. These linked microdata allow us to identify the precise industrial origin of inventions, combine them with technology classifications from the inventors’ patents and to generate novel concordance tables. We evaluate our approach by comparing the concordances with existing work. Moreover, in an empirical application, we find that patent based indicators represent valid proxies for the innovation performance of industries and thus help to measure innovation in the absence of other survey based indicators. Service sector innovation activities, however, appear to be barely represented by the patenting activities of inventors and establishments.     

Resolving the patents paradox in the era of COVID-19 and climate change: Towards a patents taxonomy

This paper revisits the patents debate and considers the role of intellectual property rights and their impact on society in the context of inventions designed to protect global common pool resources (CPRs) such as public health and the environment. A review of the theoretical and empirical literature suggests that there has never been a clear consensus among researchers on the benefits of the patent system and intellectual property rights. As Robinson notes, “The patent system introduces some of the greatest of the complexities in the capitalist rules of the game and leads to many anomalies.” We explore these anomalies by specifying a taxonomy of patents for different classes of inventions, including inventions to protect CPRs. This includes vaccines and inventions that reduce externalities, such as, CFC gases and greenhouse gas emissions. In these instances, the effectiveness of innovations depends critically on rapid global diffusion. Our theoretical analysis utilises Ostrom's CPR dilemma to analyse the complexities surrounding innovation and CPRs.We find that the effectiveness of innovations to protect CPRs depends on industrial characteristics and the wider regulatory environment. Empirical evidence is brought to bear on these conclusions via 2 case studies that each embodies a natural experiment; one on vaccines pre- and post-TRIPS and one on environmental technologies to reduce CFC gases and CO₂ emissions with and without an agreed UN Protocol. The insights gained are explored in our policy section. Our analysis suggests the need for a more nuanced approach to patent policy that is embedded in the wider context of innovation systems and takes account of the anomalies raised by CPRs. For CPR protecting innovations subject to positive network externalities, we advocate that policy should prioritise diffusion over private incentives for R&D and use alternative policies to patents to stimulate investment in R&D.     

适应人工智能快速发展的知识产权制度研究

基于深度学习算法的进步,人工智能逐渐有能力独立进行发明创造和文艺作品创作。本文主要探讨现行专利及著作权制度中规定的保护对象、权利人资格、专利及著作权的权属、侵权判定、侵权责任主体等对人工智能技术快速发展的适应及协调程度,研究指出：现有的专利和版权制度应当对人工智能的发明和作品持鼓励的态度,在排除不适宜作为专利或著作权保护对象的同时,人工智能的发明或作品的权利授予标准应当与人类的有所区分;相关权利人仍须对应自然人或法人,而非人工智能本身;相关专利侵权行为应包括间接侵权,同时应对人工智能作品安排“登记-授权”的著作权制度、参考临摹作品为人工智能绘画作品提供相应的授权使用制度等。本文还探讨了当前的专利法及著作权法在人工智能时代符合公平原则的程度,并提出解决方案：在“强人工智能时代”将人工智能的发明创造或作品作为公共财产,授予相应的开发者“数据处理权”作为一种新的邻接权,赋予人工智能创造物新的特别权利（Sui Generis）,修改专利法与著作权法中关于主要权利的相关规定等。     

Patent systems for encouraging innovation: Lessons from economic analysis

Economic theory views patents as policy instruments aimed at fostering innovation and diffusion. Three major implications are drawn regarding current policy debates. First, patents may not be the most effective means of protection for inventors to recover R&D investments when imitation is costly and first mover advantages are important. Second, patentability requirements, such as novelty or non-obviousness, should be sufficiently stringent to avoid the grant of patents for inventions with low social value that increase the social cost of the patent system. Third, the trade-off between the patent policy instruments of length and breadth could be used to provide sufficient incentives to develop inventions with high social value. Beyond these three implications, economic theory also pleads for a mechanism design approach: an optimal patent system could be based on a menu of different degrees of patent protection where stronger protection would involve higher fees, allowing self-selection by inventors.     

基于专利相似度的突破性技术发明识别研究——以纳米技术为例

随着我国发明专利申请数量的迅猛增加,如何通过事前和事后指标测度并识别技术和经济价值高的突破性技术发明就成为学术界面临的焦点问题。针对我国专利普遍缺乏引文信息的现状,本文利用专利的国际专利分类（IPC）信息构建两两专利相似度指标,并引入时间维度对过去、当前以及未来三个时间段的专利相似度比较,测度专利的新颖性、独特性和影响力,从而构建突破性技术发明的综合识别方案。然后,以纳米技术为例,利用美国专利商标局（USPTO）在1975-2015年的授权发明专利数据进行实证检验。结果表明：（1）基于专利IPC四位和六位分类的相似度指标分别可以识别出6.23%和5.06%的纳米技术专利为突破性技术发明;（2）基于专利相似度识别的突破性技术发明与基于专利被引数识别的突破性技术发明具有显著的正相关关系,但是,两类识别方法得到的结果中仅有不足总样本的0.5%是相同的,表明以往单纯依赖专利被引数据识别突破性技术发明可能存在一定偏差;（3）对突破性技术发明来源特征的实证检验表明,基于专利相似度和基于专利被引数的突破性技术发明的发明人和组织来源特征基本一致,而发明层面的知识来源特征呈现不一致的结果,进一步反映出两类识别方案的差异性。本文基于专利相似度构建的突破性技术发明识别方案既为企业在实践中挖掘和利用高价值的发明专利提供参考,也对未来突破性技术发明相关研究达成一致结论具有重要意义。     

An examination of the intertemporal returns of patented inventions

This paper examines the intertemporal returns of patented inventions using estimates of patent value obtained from German employee inventors’ compensation records. The paper finds heterogeneity in the mean age and dispersion of the annual returns by technology and cumulative patent value. While the returns earned by most patents dissipate rapidly, high valued patents tend to receive significant returns through the latter part of the patent term. These high valued patents which account for the vast majority of the realized returns, further can be identified based on past returns, relatively early in the patent term. These findings suggest that while shortening the length of the patent term could substantially reduce realized returns, graduated maintenance fees may not adversely affect returns, as firms would be able to identify and selectively renew the subset of high valued patents.     

基于语义特征的潜在标准必要专利识别研究

   潜在标准必要专利在未来市场中具有极高的战略价值和经济价值,企业如何抢先识别这些专利对建设创新型国家、优化企业专利布局、加快技术创新、提升行业地位、规避专利挟持具有重要意义。但目前关于自动化识别潜在标准必要专利的研究尚少。本文从提取标准必要专利语义特征的视角下,提出利用Bert-CNN网络模型结合上下文对已知标准必要专利的隐性全局语义特征和高维层次语义特征双重提取,依据特征提取结果识别潜在标准必要专利,并通过计算Bert向量相似度预测潜在标准必要专利可能对应的标准。实证部分以ETSI欧洲标准化协会发布的标准必要专利构建数据验证集对模型的性能进行验证,结果显示本模型在大规模专利数据实验中的精准率、召回率、F1值优于已有研究。     

Appropriate intellectual property protection and economic growth in countries at different levels of development

This paper examines how the role of patents and utility models in innovation and economic growth varies by level of economic development. Using a panel dataset of over 70 countries, we find that patent protection is an important determinant of innovation and that patentable innovations contribute to economic growth in developed countries, but not in developing. Instead, in developing economies, a minor form of intellectual property rights (IPRs) - namely utility models - is conducive to innovation and growth, controlling for other factors. Using Korean firm level data as a case study, we find that utility model innovations contribute to firm performance when firms are technologically lagging and that those minor innovations can be a learning device and thus a stepping stone for developing more patentable inventions later on. Upon reaching higher levels of technological capabilities, firms become more reliant upon patents and less on utility models. Thus the lesson here is that patent protection enhances innovation and economic growth in countries where the capacity to conduct innovative research exists. Where this capacity is weaker, a system that provides incentives to conduct minor, incremental inventions is more conducive to growth. The significance of this paper is to emphasize the importance not just of the strength of IPRs but of the appropriate type of IPRs for economic development.     

专利转化实施与质效提升——基于江苏“双一流”高校数据的分析

以IncoPat专利库为数据来源,构建检索策略获取到江苏省“双一流”建设高校2010-2019年平均专利转化率为3.11%,苏州大学近4年专利转化非常活跃,南京中医药大学等6所高校专利转化与“一流”学科关联度超60%,专利转化模式较为单一；主要原因在于政策引导存偏颇、质量审核机制缺失、专利转化未融入高校科技创新体系、评价和奖助机制存缺陷、转化模式单一、职务发明产权归属制约、优势学科的转化效能较低；建议加强政策引导完善考评激励机制、坚持质量优先实施专利全流程管理、优化高校组织架构、探索职务发明权属改革、突出转化导向理念,积极对接产业实施、创新专利许可模式、加大高校优势学科产业辐射效能、加强专业机构和人才队伍建设。     

江苏省生物医药专利合作网络演化特征分析

检索1999—2018年间江苏省生物医药领域专利情况,应用社会网络分析法分析江苏省生物医药发明专利合作整体网络的特征及其在不同年份(1999—2008年和2009—2018年)的演化特点。研究结果显示:江苏省生物医药发明专利合作网络规模不断增加,但区域分布不均衡,主要集中于南京、苏州和无锡等传统医药产业发达地区,且近年苏州、无锡、扬州、镇江和南通等地市的发明专利申请比重增加明显;同时网络中节点的合作关系也趋于紧密,网络呈现出多中心特征,体现较为明显的产学研合作趋势,并且这种趋势不断加强。最后基于研究结论,建议江苏省出台相关政策,鼓励在生物医药领域拥有专利较多的高校和科研院所在省内建立合作创新中心,辐射带动区域医药产业发展,以及推动高校和研究院所之间开展生物医药领域的合作创新等。     

产学合作网络中企业关系势能与自主创新绩效——基于地理边界拓展的调节作用

本文采用中国有机化学行业的产学合作专利数据,进行专利地图分析,并以参与产学合作的企业的自主创新绩效为因变量,构建非平衡面板数据下的负二项回归模型,研究产学合作网络中,企业的关系势能对企业自主创新绩效的影响,并考察合作网络的地理边界拓展对二者关系的调节作用。分析结果发现我国有机化学行业的产学合作近几年增速放缓,且已呈现出地理边界拓展的形态,回归结果支持了部分假设:企业的直接关系规模和间接关系强度与企业自主创新绩效正相关,合作网络的地理边界拓展正向调节间接关系规模、间接关系强度与企业自主创新绩效的关系。     

Partisan patent examiners? Exploring the link between the political ideology of patent examiners and patent office outcomes

Patents are key strategic resources which enable firms to appropriate innovation returns and prevent rival imitation. Patent examiners – individuals who may be subject to various sources of bias – play a central role in determining which inventions are awarded patent rights. Using a novel dataset, we explore if one increasingly prevalent source of bias – political ideology – manifests in examiner decision-making. Reassuringly, our analysis suggests that the political ideology of patent examiners is largely unrelated to patent office outcomes. However, we do find evidence suggesting politically active conservative-leaning examiners are more likely to grant patents relative to politically active liberal-leaning examiners, but only for patent applications where there is ambiguity regarding what constitutes patentable subject matter and hence examiners have greater discretion.     

Absorptive capacity and the search for innovation

This paper examines the link between a firm's absorptive capacity-building activities and the search process for innovation. We propose that the enhanced access to university research enjoyed by firms that engage in basic research and collaborate with university scientists leads to superior search for new inventions and provides advantage in terms of both the timing and quality of search outcomes. Results based on a panel data of pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms support these contentions and suggest that the two research activities are mutually beneficial, but also uncover intriguing differences that suggest differing roles of internally and externally developed knowledge.     

The ability of European regions to diversify in renewable energies: The role of technological relatedness

Despite the global consensus about the growing significance of renewables, the regional drivers of innovation in these unique and novel technologies have been widely neglected in the literature. In this paper, we show that renewable energy (RE) inventions differ from other green inventions in the knowledge recombination processes leading to their generation as well as in their impact on subsequent inventions. The evidence on these specificities of RE technologies allows us hypothesizing that regional branching in renewables may rely on relatedness differently than other non-RE green technologies. In checking this hypothesis, we use a data set spanning the period 1981-2015 covering 277 European NUTS2 regions in the EU28 countries plus Norway. We obtain that relatedness is highly relevant in explaining regional specialization in RE, and more relevant than for other green technologies, which we associate to the lower generality in their impact and the narrower scope of the knowledge from which they nurture. This conclusion is maintained when considering separately regions with high and low development levels. However, the impact of relatedness increases for RE as the regional economic development decreases, signalling that a low endowment of resources and capabilities does not allow the region to break from its past technological specialization, depending more on relatedness. This would not be the case for other green technologies, probably due to their higher level of generality and wider scope.     

职务发明人合理分享创新收益的实现路径研究

职务发明人合理分享创新收益是实现职务发明创造转化和实施运用的有效激励手段。《专利法（修正案草案）》对此予以了明确。作为职务发明人智力成果的价值体现和促进职务发明人推动发明创造成果转化的制度激励，职务发明人合理分享创新收益具有正当性。但是，有限的“约定优先”、“合理性”标准的模糊对待、国有资产法律法规的限制性规定、职务发明相关权利的杂糅处理和单位知识产权运营能力的不足对职务发明人实现创新收益分享形成掣肘。实现职务发明人合理分享创新收益，首先应明确“合理性”的判断标准，即在程序正义的基础上根据职务发明人的创造性贡献程度和职务发明所产生的经济效益确认收益分享的合理限度。其次，职务发明创造的专利权作为一项“权利束”，应将其分而处之，明晰各参与主体间的权利边界。再次，应优化国有资产属性的职务发明创造的管理体制，探索建立以科技法律制度为核心，兼容其他各部门法律法规的无形资产管理制度。复次，在产权明晰的基础上，应鼓励单位与职务发明人之间通过约定分享收益。最后，实现单位与职务发明人的互利共赢还需要提升单位的知识产权运营能力，以实现职务发明成果的转化利用。     

高新技术企业研发人员跨界行为何以激励探索式创新？——一个有调节的中介效应模型

运用资源依赖理论，构建研发人员跨界行为、知识重构影响企业探索式创新的有调节的中介效应模型，运用259份有效问卷通过层次回归、bootstrap等数据分析方法进行实证分析，研究研发人员跨界行为对探索式创新的影响机制并进一步证明环境动荡性的调节作用。研究结果表明，研发人员跨界行为能够显著提高高新技术企业探索式创新；研发人员跨界行为对探索式创新的影响主要通过知识重构介导；环境动荡性增强了研发人员跨界行为对探索式创新的影响。