Intangible assets and competitiveness in Spain: an approach based on trademark registration data in Catalonia (1850-1946)

This paper studies the origins of trademark registration in Spain and offers, for the first time, data across sectors and regions with a long-term perspective. In apparent contradiction to the slow path of industrialization and the economic backwardness of Spain between 1850 and the 1940s, empirical evidence on trademark registration suggests that, in this field, Spanish policies and Spanish firms seemed to be well ahead of other countries. Spain was among the pioneering countries in the Western world in having a state legislation protecting brand registration since 1850. Also, some Spanish regions and industrialized sectors adopted similar strategies to those of its European counterparts in terms of using consistently branding and registered trademarks. Our evidence suggests that firms seem to have used brands and marks, first to fight against fraud and imitation and second to add intangible assets to its products in order to endow them with persistent identity trends regarding origins or quality of the product that were difficult to replicate, as often happened with patents. This created and accumulated, over that period of time, a marketing knowledge among consumers, which may have been useful to maintain the competitiveness of some industrial districts and regions.Intangible assets; Trade Marks; Brands; Catalonia, Spain.

Social networks of innovation in the European periphery. Exploring independent versus corporate patents in Spain circa 1820-1939

There is a widespread idea that corporations have completely taken over invention and innovation processes throughout the twentieth century, thus becoming the main users of patent systems. However, recent studies suggest that, in spite of corporate expansion, independent invention is still economically significant nowadays, and that individuals outside the boundaries of the firm were actually the principal source of innovation before World War II. This article analyzes the history of corporate and independent patents in Spain in the long-term, in order to confirm that independents were also very relevant to promoting innovation and technology transfer in latecomers with high rates of technological dependence. Employing a new method of work with patent files, we also offer new historical evidence of the structure, effectiveness and scope of emerging international social networks of innovation. After introducing the research framework, Section Two briefly summarizes the characteristics of the Spanish patent system, and compares corporate and independent patents taken out between 1820 and 1939. Section Three studies the duration and strength of independent patents and the structure of the communities of innovation, and the conclusions make up Section Fou

Social networks of innovation in the European periphery: independent versus corporate patents in pain circa 1820-1939

"There is a widespread idea that corporations have completely taken over invention and innovation processes throughout the twentieth century, thus becoming the main users of patent systems. However, recent studies suggest that, in spite of corporate expansion, independent invention is still economically significant nowadays, and that individuals outside the boundaries of the firm were actually the principal source of innovation before World War II. This article analyzes the history of corporate and independent patents in Spain in the long-term, in order to confirm that independents were also very relevant to promoting innovation and technology transfer in latecomers with high rates of technological dependence. Employing a new method of work with patent files, the author also offers new historical evidence of the structure, effectiveness and scope of emerging international social networks of innovation. After introducing the research framework, Section Two briefly summarizes the characteristics of the Spanish patent system, and compares corporate and independent patents taken out between 1820 and 1939. Section Three studies the duration and strength of independent patents and the structure of the communities of innovation and the conclusions make up Section Four." (author's abstract

Patentes, cambio técnico e industrialización en la España del siglo XIX

Editada en la Fundación Empresa PúblicaEn este artículo se utilizan las series de patentes para profundizar en la estructura de la economía española entre 1759 y 1878, partiendo de la hipótesis de que la actividad inventiva es fruto de la demanda derivada del proceso de crecimiento económico. Los resultados aclaran que la mayor parte de las patentes se concentraron en determinados sectores innovadores en expansión, entre los que es posible encontrar —además de a la industria textil y a los metales— a actividades que la historiografía no ha unido, habitualmente, con procesos de cambio técnico e industrialización en la época analizada. Es el caso de la transformación de productos agrarios, la fabricación de bienes de equipo, la química de consumo, la construcción o los servicios. A través de un estudio detallado de las patentes es posible caracterizar y particularizar el proceso de avance técnico en cada uno de estos sectores.In this paper we use patent statistics in order to analyse the structure of the Spanish economy between 1759 and 1878. We depart from the hypothesis that inventive activity is demand driven. The results show how at the beginning of the Spanish industrialisation the majority of patents were concentrated in a few innovative sectors. Besides the textile and basic metal industries, it is possible to find some other sectors that have not usually been linked to technical change nor to productivity growth during that period. This is the case for the food, beverages and tobaceo industries, machinery and equipment as well as chemical, construction and services sectors. A detailed analysis of patent records makes ít possible to study the characteristics and peculiaríties of the technical progress conceming each one of these sectors.Publicad

Patent networks, collaboration patterns, and national innovation systems. Sweden and Spain during the Second Industrial Revolution

Sweden and Spain have developed very distinct systems of innovation over the long term. The former has a highly innovative economy while the latter drags serious problems in science and technology. However, during the first half of the nineteenth century both countries were latecomers to the industrial revolution in the European periphery with similar economic, technological, and institutional challenges ahead. In this paper, we hypothesize that one possible reason for this long-term divergence lies in the different collaboration patterns that emerge from interactions among innovative agents. To analyse such cooperation patterns we apply social network analysis methods and study co-patent networks in Sweden and Spain during the second industrial revolution (1878-1914). The results demonstrate that collaboration among innovators and openness to foreign influence was greater in Sweden than in Spain. This research opens new paths for further studies both on economic history and innovation networks dynamic

Hotspots of biogeochemical activity linked to aridity and plant traits across global drylands

14 páginas.- 4 figuras.- 67 referencias.- The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-024-01670-7Perennial plants create productive and biodiverse hotspots, known as fertile islands, beneath their canopies. These hotspots largely determine the structure and functioning of drylands worldwide. Despite their ubiquity, the factors controlling fertile islands under conditions of contrasting grazing by livestock, the most prevalent land use in drylands, remain virtually unknown. Here we evaluated the relative importance of grazing pressure and herbivore type, climate and plant functional traits on 24 soil physical and chemical attributes that represent proxies of key ecosystem services related to decomposition, soil fertility, and soil and water conservation. To do this, we conducted a standardized global survey of 288 plots at 88 sites in 25 countries worldwide. We show that aridity and plant traits are the major factors associated with the magnitude of plant effects on fertile islands in grazed drylands worldwide. Grazing pressure had little influence on the capacity of plants to support fertile islands. Taller and wider shrubs and grasses supported stronger island effects. Stable and functional soils tended to be linked to species-rich sites with taller plants. Together, our findings dispel the notion that grazing pressure or herbivore type are linked to the formation or intensification of fertile islands in drylands. Rather, our study suggests that changes in aridity, and processes that alter island identity and therefore plant traits, will have marked effects on how perennial plants support and maintain the functioning of drylands in a more arid and grazed world.This research was supported by the European Research Council (ERC grant 647038 (BIODESERT) awarded to F.T.M.) and Generalitat Valenciana (CIDEGENT/2018/041). D.J.E. was supported by the Hermon Slade Foundation (HSF21040). J. Ding was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Project (41991232) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China. M.D.-B. acknowledges support from TED2021-130908B-C41/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/Unión Europea Next Generation EU/PRTR and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation for the I + D + i project PID2020-115813RA-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. O.S. was supported by US National Science Foundation (Grants DEB 1754106, 20-25166), and Y.L.B.-P. by a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship (MSCA-1018 IF) within the European Program Horizon 2020 (DRYFUN Project 656035). K.G. and N.B. acknowledge support from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) SPACES projects OPTIMASS (FKZ: 01LL1302A) and ORYCS (FKZ: FKZ01LL1804A). B.B. was supported by the Taylor Family-Asia Foundation Endowed Chair in Ecology and Conservation Biology, and M. Bowker by funding from the School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University. C.B. acknowledges funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41971131). D.B. acknowledges support from the Hungarian Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFI KKP 144096), and A. Fajardo support from ANID PIA/BASAL FB 210006 and the Millennium Science Initiative Program NCN2021-050. M.F. and H.E. received funding from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (grant 39843). A.N. and M.K. acknowledge support from FCT (CEECIND/02453/2018/CP1534/CT0001, SFRH/BD/130274/2017, PTDC/ASP-SIL/7743/2020, UIDB/00329/2020), EEA (10/CALL#5), AdaptForGrazing (PRR-C05-i03-I-000035) and LTsER Montado platform (LTER_EU_PT_001) grants. O.V. acknowledges support from the Hungarian Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFI KKP 144096). L.W. was supported by the US National Science Foundation (EAR 1554894). Y.Z. and X.Z. were supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U2003214). H.S. is supported by a María Zambrano fellowship funded by the Ministry of Universities and European Union-Next Generation plan. The use of any trade, firm or product names does not imply endorsement by any agency, institution or government. Finally, we thank the many people who assisted with field work and the landowners, corporations and national bodies that allowed us access to their land.Peer reviewe