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What is small? Small and medium enterprises facing patenting activities

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Abstract

The effect of a firm's size is analysed in relation with the probability of applying for a patent. We worked on the identification of a firm's minimum size, a threshold needed to formally protect an innovation by legal means. Below this minimum size the costs associated with protection are so high that firms prefer informal protection of their innovations. The literature concludes that as size increases so does the propensity to patent. This research finds similar results for pool regressions. In an attempt to understand the relationship between size and patent activity better, the population of firms is divided into two groups. On a first stage a firm was considered small if it had below 250 employees and large if it had more; a moving threshold was applied on a second stage. The results show that for some economies the minimum threshold needed for filing a patent is well below 250 employees.

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  • Abraham Garcia & Dominique Foray, 2010. "What is small? Small and medium enterprises facing patenting activities," JRC Working Papers on Corporate R&D and Innovation 2010-09, Joint Research Centre.
    • Handle: RePEc:ipt:wpaper:201009
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    File URL: https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC61689
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    Cited by:

    1. Birgit Aschhoff & Georg Licht & Paula Schliessler, 2013. "Who Drives Smart Growth? The Contribution of Small and Young Firms to Inventions in Sustainable Technologies. WWWforEurope Working Paper No. 47," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 47072, Juni.

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    Keywords

    SME; patents; IPRs;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O34 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital
    • C01 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - General - - - Econometrics

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