Patent Office in innovation policy: Nobody's perfect

The number of patent applications and "bad" patents issued has been rising rapidly in recent years. Based on this trend, we study the overload problem within the Patent Office and its consequences on the firms' R&D incentives. We assume that the examination process of patent applications is imperfect, and that its quality is poorer under congestion. Depend- ing on policy instruments such as submission fees and the toughness of the non-obviousness requirement, the system may result in a high-R&D equilibrium, in which firms self-select in their patent applications, or in an equilibrium with low R&D, opportunistic patent applications and the issuance of bad patents. Multiple equilibria often coexist, which deeply undermines the effectiveness of policy instruments. We investigate the robustness of our conclusions as to how the value of patent protection is formalized, taking into consideration the introduction of a penalty system for rejected patent applications, as well as the role of commitment to a given IP protection policy.patent office ; patent quality ; congestion ; innovation

Implementing the Optimal Auction

In a general framework with independent private values of the bidders, we propose a game, with a simple economic interpretation, that allows implementing the optimal auction outcome when the seller ignores the distributions of the different bidders' valuations. In this robust or detail-free implementation procedure, a second-price auction is organized and the winner volunteers a payment to the seller; this payment can then be challenged by another bidder who knows the distribution of the winner's valuation. Dans un cadre du modèle d'enchères avec des valeurs privées indépendantes, nous proposons un jeu, ayant une interprétation économique simple, qui permet de mettre en oeuvre les enchères optimales même quand le vendeur ignore les distributions des volontés à payer des différents soumissionnaires. Dans cette procédure robuste (detail-free), une enchère au deuxième prix est organisée et le gagnant de cette enchère propose un paiement au vendeur; ce paiement peut alors être contesté par un autre soumissionnaire qui connaît la distribution de l'évaluation du gagnant.Auction, mechanism design, Wilson doctrine, Enchères, design de mécanismes, doctrine de Wilson

Consensus building: How to persuade a group

Many decisions in private and public organizations are made by groups. The paper explores strategies that the sponsor of a proposal may employ to convince a qualified majority of group members to approve the proposal. Adopting a mechanism design approach to communication, it emphasizes the need to distill information selectively to key members of the group and to engineer persuasion cascades in which members who are brought on board sway the opinion of others. The paper unveils the factors, such as the extent of congruence among group members and between them and the sponsor, and the size and governance of the group, that condition the sponsor's ability to maneuver and get his project approved.group decision-making ; selective communication ; persuasion cascade ; internal and external congruence

Strategic loyalty reward in dynamic price Discrimination

This paper proposes a dynamic model of duopolistic competition under behaviorbased price discrimination with the following property: in equilibrium, a firm may reward its previous customers although long term contracts are not enforceable. A firm can offer a lower price to its previous customers than to its new customers as a strategic means to hamper its rival to gather precise information on the young generation of customers for subsequent profitable behavior-based pricing. The result holds both with myopic and forward-looking, impatient enough consumers.Price discrimination ; Dynamic pricing ; Loyalty reward

Patent Office in innovation policy: Nobody's perfect

The number of patent applications and "bad" patents issued has been rising rapidly in recent years. Based on this trend, we study the overload problem within the Patent Office and its consequences on the firms' R&D incentives. We assume that the examination process of patent applications is imperfect, and that its quality is poorer under congestion. Depend- ing on policy instruments such as submission fees and the toughness of the non-obviousness requirement, the system may result in a high-R&D equilibrium, in which firms self-select in their patent applications, or in an equilibrium with low R&D, opportunistic patent applications and the issuance of bad patents. Multiple equilibria often coexist, which deeply undermines the effectiveness of policy instruments. We investigate the robustness of our conclusions as to how the value of patent protection is formalized, taking into consideration the introduction of a penalty system for rejected patent applications, as well as the role of commitment to a given IP protection policy.Les nombres de demandes de brevets et de "mauvais" brevets accordés ont cru rapidement dans les années récentes. Partant de ce constat, nous étudions le problème de congestion dans le processus d'attribution des brevets et ses conséquences sur les incitations à la R&D pour les entreprises. Nous supposons que le processus d'examen des demandes est imparfait et que sa qualité se dégrade sous l'effet de la congestion. En fonction d'instruments tels que les droits de soumission et la sévérité du critère d'inventivité, le système peut conduire à un équilibre avec forte R&D dans lequel les entreprises s'auto-sélectionnent, ou un équilibre avec peu de R&D, des demandes opportunistes et la délivrance de mauvais brevets. Il y a souvent multiplicité d'équilibres, ce qui limite l'efficacité des instruments de contrôle. On montre comment les conclusions se modifient selon la formalisation de la valeur de la protection par brevet, selon qu'est prise en compte la possibilité de pénalités pour rejet de la demande et selon la force de l'engagement contenu dans la politique de protection des droits de propriété intellectuels

Allocation des sillons ferroviaires : la possibilité d’enchères

Cette note traite de l’allocation efficace des capacités limitées de circulation sur le réseau ferré, c’est-à-dire des sillons ferroviaires, entre différents usages ou différents opérateurs. Les éléments pertinents de la théorie des enchères sont rappelés et il est montré comment ils peuvent être adaptés de manière à rendre compte des spécificités du secteur. La note se concentre particulièrement sur le format de l’enchère de Vickrey généralisée, dans le cadre multi-unitaire avec complémentarités, et discute en détails des limites tant théoriques que pratiques de ce type de procédure.This note addresses the issue of the efficient allocation of limited access capacities on the railtrack network among different usages or different operators. Relevant ideas from the auction theory are presented and we show how the theory can be adapted so as to fit the specific context of railtrack access. The paper mainly focuses on the so-called generalized Vickrey auction format, in a multi-unit setting with complementarities, and we discuss both the theoretical and practical limitation of this type of procedure

Allocation des sillons ferroviaires : la possibilité d’enchères

Cette note traite de l’allocation efficace des capacités limitées de circulation sur le réseau ferré, c’est-à-dire des sillons ferroviaires, entre différents usages ou différents opérateurs. Les éléments pertinents de la théorie des enchères sont rappelés et il est montré comment ils peuvent être adaptés de manière à rendre compte des spécificités du secteur. La note se concentre particulièrement sur le format de l’enchère de Vickrey généralisée, dans le cadre multi-unitaire avec complémentarités, et discute en détails des limites tant théoriques que pratiques de ce type de procédure.This note addresses the issue of the efficient allocation of limited access capacities on the railtrack network among different usages or different operators. Relevant ideas from the auction theory are presented and we show how the theory can be adapted so as to fit the specific context of railtrack access. The paper mainly focuses on the so-called generalized Vickrey auction format, in a multi-unit setting with complementarities, and we discuss both the theoretical and practical limitation of this type of procedure