Econométrie de l'inovation : Le Brevet

Plateau du Kirchberg Luxembourg
28 & 29 Novembre 1996

Sessions :

Patent : What do we know; What must we learn
Innovation - Compétitivité - Brevet	Innovation - Competitivity - Patent
Valeur - Durée	Valuation - Duration
Diffusion technologique par brevet	Technological Spillover through Patents
Bibliométrie	Bibliometrics
Stratégie d'appropriation par l'entreprise	Business Appropriation Strategy
Dimension internationale	International Aspects

Patent : What do we know; What must we learn
F.M. SCHERER Harvard University

1. Introduction. The extraordinary progress since the 1950s.
   Exclude policy issues, but they will lurk in the background.

2. Analytic models.

a) In the beginning: Nordhaus.
b) Exclusive prospect vs. rent-seeking models.
c) Extensions:

1) Imperfect protection and optimal compulsory licensing.
2) Sequential related inventions. Giants'shoulders.
3) Optimal breadth vs. optimal lenght.
4) Geographic breadth: The Uruguay Round and LDCs.
5) Optimal enforcement.

d) Unsolved problems: patent portfolios. Analogous to the problems
    of breadth and length ?
e) Unsolved problems: substitutability and complementarity of
    non-patent incentives. The survey evidence.
f) Patents for what? Invention vs. innovation vs. diffusion.

3. Patents as Data on Innovative Activity.

a) Using raw patent counts. Gilfillan, Schmookler, et al.
b) Correlation with other innovation variables.
c) Unpatented inventions.
d) Patent qualify: international families.
e) Patent qualify: citation analysis. Spillovers?
f) Patent qualify: renewal models. The high-value tail.
The skewness problem.

4. Conclusion. Where we are, where we must go.
    The gulf between our analytic findings and  olicy-making.