Great Data, Nice Tale, But What's the Message? The OHIM/EPO Study on the Economic Relevance of IP-Intensive Industries in the EU
IIC: international review of intellectual property and competition law,Vol. 45.2014, Issue 6, pp 617-620
Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition Discussion Paper No. 1
6 Pages Posted: 1 Aug 2014 Last revised: 30 Oct 2014
Date Written: July 14, 2014
Abstract
In September 2013, EPO and OHIM jointly launched a Report on the economic performance of IP-intensive industries in the EU. Ever since its publication, the Report has been cited as bearing proof to the economic importance of IP, thereby bolstering claims for further enforcement-enhancing measures and policies. However, the eagerness with which the Report is instrumentalized for political purposes ignores the fact that, as the economists performing the study themselves have emphasized, their findings do not provide evidence regarding the causal relationship between IP and the economic data. Instead of serving a better understanding of the economics of IP, such politically tainted over-interpretations might actually discredit the analytical results and the advances in setting up a comprehensive database of IPR utilization at the firm level.
Keywords: IP-intensive industries; IP and economics; OHIM/EPO Study; European Observatory; IP enforcement.
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