The cost factor in patent systems
Abstract
The objective of this paper is to assess whether and to what extent the cost of patenting affects the demand for patents. The empirical analysis, which focuses on the patent systems of the USA, Japan, and Europe during the year 2003, leads to the following methodological and empirical observations: i) after the grant, the translation, validation and transaction costs induced by an effective protection in several European countries witness a highly fragmented and very expensive European market for intellectual property; ii) for a proper international comparison, the size of the market and the average number of claims must be accounted for; iii) when the cost per claim per capita (the 3C-index) is considered, a negative linear relationship appears between the cost of patenting and the number of claims that are filed; iv) for a patent designating 13 European countries, the 3C-index is about 10 (2) times higher than in the US (Japanese) system (for process and translation costs up to the grant); v) The European market being more than twice as large as the US market in terms of inhabitants, the 3C-index suggests that there would be a clear justification for higher nominal examination fees at the EPO, that would ensure a rigorous granting process.Download Info
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Paper provided by ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles in its series Working Papers CEB with number 06-002.RS.Length: 33 p.
Date of creation: 2006
Date of revision:
Publication status: Published by: Centre Emile Bernheim, Bruxelles
Handle: RePEc:sol:wpaper:06-002
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Keywords: patents; cost elasticity; cost per claim per capita; patent systems.;Other versions of this item:
- Bruno van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie & Didier François, 2009. "The Cost Factor in Patent Systems," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 9(4), pages 329-355, December.
- Francois, Didier & van Pottelsberghe, Bruno, 2006. "The Cost Factor in Patent Systems," CEPR Discussion Papers 5944, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
- Bruno Van Pottelsberghe & Didier François, 2009. "The cost factor in patent systems," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/13422, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
- P14 - Economic Systems - - Capitalist Systems - - - Property Rights
- P51 - Economic Systems - - Comparative Economic Systems - - - Comparative Analysis of Economic Systems
- O34 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change; Research and Development; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Intellectual Property Rights
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ALL-2006-03-25 (All new papers)
- NEP-EEC-2006-03-25 (European Economics)
- NEP-INO-2006-03-25 (Innovation)
- NEP-TID-2006-03-25 (Technology & Industrial Dynamics)
References
References listed on IDEASPlease report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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