Determinants of high-royalty contracts and the impact of stronger protection of intellectual property rights in Japan

This paper first reviews how Japan has strengthened the protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs), focusing on the expansion of the patentable subject matter, the restriction of the possibility of compulsory licensing, stronger deterrence against infringement and the introduction of the doctrine of equivalents. Second, based on the statistical analysis of sector-level panel data, it shows that (1)R&D intensity of domestic industry, trademark licensing, cross-licensing and, to a smaller degree, monopoly provisions are the significant determinants of the incidence of high-royalty contracts, and (2)Stronger protection of intellectual property rights looks to have increased the incidence of high-royalty contracts in the latter part of 1990s in the Japanese industries for which patent is important for appropriability.Intellectual property rights, Licensing contract, Appropriability, Patent

Trademarks as an indicator of innovation and industrial change

As innovation becomes an ever more central issue for the development of firms and world economies, so the need for improved assessments of innovative performance grows more urgent. This paper suggests that trademark analysis can contribute in capturing relevant aspects of innovation phenomena and the process of industrial change. We propose trademarks as a complementary indicator in the portfolio of available empirical tools of innovation studies and industrial dynamics. Our empirical exploration is based on a study of community trade marks (CTM), an intellectual property right granted in the European Union, and draws on recent research on trademarking trends in Portugal. Quantitative as well as qualitative data, including survey data from a representative sample of Portuguese manufacturing and services firms, are used to identify the advantages and limitations of this indicator.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The global distribution of trademarks - some stylized facts

Trademarks are words, signs, symbols, or combinations thereof that identify goods as manufactured by a particular person or a company, therefore allowing consumers to distinguish between goods originating in different sources. Trademarks belong to the wider family of intellectual property rights (IPRs), and once registered benefit from legal protection against unauthorized use by entities other than the legal owner. While some suggest that cross-border registrations of IPRs may be associated with welfare transfers from developing to industrial countries, surprisingly little is known about an important component of the global IPR system, namely, the worldwide distribution of trademark registrations. This study provides the first step in filling this gap in the literature. Its purpose is to present some new stylized facts which emerge from the analysis of a dataset compiled by the authors based on the statistical information published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Questions of interest include the distribution of trademarks between countries of different income levels, the share of trademark registrations accounted for by foreign residents and its variation across different income groups, the extent to which poor countries participate in the international trademark system, and the distribution of registrations across different sectors of the economy.Environmental Economics&Policies,Fiscal&Monetary Policy,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Economic Theory&Research,Income,Economic Theory&Research,Income,Environmental Economics&Policies,Fiscal&Monetary Policy,Health Economics&Finance

Technology upgrading of middle income economies: A new approach and results

We explore issues of measurement for technology upgrading of the economies moving from middle to high-income status. In exploring this issue, we apply theoretically relevant and empirically grounded middle level conceptual and statistical framework based on three dimensions: (i) Intensity (ii) breadth of technological upgrading, and (iii) technology and knowledge exchange. As an outcome, we construct a three-pronged composite indicator of technology upgrading based on 35 indicators which reflect different drivers and patterns of technology upgrading of countries at different income levels. We show that technology upgrading of middle-income economies is distinctively different from that of low and high-income economies. Our results suggest the existence of middle-income trap in technology upgrading - i.e. countries' technology upgrading activities are not reflected in their income levels. Based on the simple statistical analysis we show that the middle-income trap is present in all three aspects of technology upgrading, but their importance varies across different aspects. A trap seems to be higher for 'breadth' of technology upgrading than for 'intensity' of technology upgrading and is by far the highest for the dimension of knowledge and technology interaction with the global economy. Finally, our research shows that technology upgrading is a multidimensional process and that it would be methodologically wrong to aim for an aggregate index

A quantitative analysis of knowledge production

Mendonça, S., Damásio, B., Freitas, L. C. D., Oliveira, L., Cichy, M., & Nicita, A. (2022). The rise of 5G technologies and systems: A quantitative analysis of knowledge production. Telecommunications Policy, 46(4), 1-28. [102327]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2022.102327 --------------- Funding Information:The authors are thankful to the Special Issue editors and three reviewers for the iterations and advice. We would also like to express our gratitude to Erik Bohlin and Martin Richard Whitehead for their useful comments. Sandro Mendonça acknowledges support from FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia), Portugal, and the support provided by Business Research Unit (BRU-IUL) and Research Unit on Complexity and Economics (UECE-REM). The work also benefited from grants UID/GES/00315/2013,UIDB/00315/2020; UIDB/05069/2020; PTDC/EGE-ECO/30690/2017 and is part of the project PTDC/EGE-ECO/30690/2017. Bruno Damásio acknowledges the financial support provided by FCT Portugal under the project UIDB/04152/2020 - Centro de Investigação em Gestão de Informação (MagIC). Although some of the authors have professional links with regulators and international institutions, in the present (ANACOM, Anatel, ECB, RCB, Italy, OECD) or in the recent past (AGCOM, UKE), this piece is written in their personal and scientific capacities. All the views and shortcomings remain the responsibility of the authors alone.The advent of a new generation of wireless communications has punctuated the dawn of every decade in recent times. Upgrades to mobile electronic systems represent faster and more robust capabilities of data transfer but bring with it a wide set of complementary changes as they are underpinned by harmonised specific spectrum bands, fresh international technical standards, new network operation requirements, innovative cellular devices as well as new services and a broader array of potential commercial use applications. This paper presents a systematic outline of the development of 5G-related research until 2020 as revealed by over 10,000 science and technology publications. The exercise addresses the emergence, growth, and impact of this body of work and offers insights regarding disciplinary distribution, international performance, and historical dynamics. Findings reveal the progressive growth of the 5G research over the years after original contributions in 2010 and point to a “take-off” around 2014. A set of stylised facts regarding this technology since its infancy are of interest to engineers, regulators and innovation strategists and policy-makers.publishersversionpublishe

In Search of a Strategy for Innovation Policy of Polish Economy

The paper is divided into three parts. First deals with the characteristics of innovative potential and innovative activity of Polish economy. Second is devoted to the problem of innovation policy in Poland. Considerations presented in this part allow to come to a few conclusions concerning evaluation of innovation policy implemented in Poland. The last part discusses the issue of innovation strategy suitable for development of Polish economy in long run

World Top R&D Investors: Industrial Property Strategies in the Digital Economy

The speed, scale and scope of the digital transformation and the widespread use of digital technologies in most aspects of our daily lives are changing the way we work, innovate, produce, interact and live. Knowledge flows almost instantaneously and digitalised information can be infinitely replicated, making the exploitation of knowledge a key factor for competitiveness. At the same time, changes at the local level may have global implications and innovation ecosystems become more and more global. These dynamics challenge policy making, and call for understanding the drivers of change, detecting trends in a timely fashion, and acting in a coordinated manner. The internet of things, digital manufacturing and 3D printing, industry 4.0 and big data are all components and drivers of the digital transformation, but the ways in which this new technological revolution will transform industries, countries and societies remain difficult to fully anticipate. As we become increasingly aware of the opportunities and the challenges of the digital economy, we also need to better understand how these technologies are forged and to identify the key players in such changes. The original data and statistics on the innovation output of the world's top corporate R&D investors presented in this report and its focus on digital technologies represent an important step towards this direction. It results from a long-term collaboration between the European Commission's Joint Research Centre and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and their joint efforts to provide up-to-date comparable data and state-of-the-art indicators and analysis. This report is directed at a number of stakeholders, including policy makers, industry representatives, practitioners and the scientific community. By exploiting information on patents, trademarks and designs, this work sheds light on the top R&D investors worldwide in the digital economy, their innovative and creative activities and their branding strategies. It is accompanied by a publicly available database that can be used for further analysis in support of evidence-based policy making.JRC.B.3-Territorial Developmen

From a distinctive sign to an exchangeable asset: exploring the U.S. market for trademark licensing

A remarkable growth in the value of trademark licensing has been recently recorded. Our paper contributes to the understanding of this under-explored phenomenon using a dataset newly released by the USPTO. Our study analyses the evolution of licensing activities in the U.S. during the 2003-2017 period, the characteristics of these trademarks and agreements, and certain features of the licensing parties involved. We found that licensing activities varied considerably during these years. They were usually signed between two parties only, and, on average, they involved more than one trademark. Excluding under-reporting effect, the analyses reveal that a large portion of heterogeneity in licensing activity is due to the NICE international classes associated with each trademark. Indeed, trademark licensing agreements appear to be unevenly distributed across these classes, suggesting that this activity and the way it is carried out is correlated with the market to which the licensed trademark refers