How Do Patents Affect Research Investments?
35 Pages Posted: 23 Jan 2017 Last revised: 31 Jan 2022
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How Do Patents Affect Research Investments?
How Do Patents Affect Research Investments?
Date Written: January 2017
Abstract
While patent systems have been widely used both historically and internationally, there is nonetheless a tremendous amount of controversy over whether patent systems – in practice – improve the alignment between private returns and social contributions. In this paper, I describe three parameters – how the disclosure function affects research investments, how patent strength affects research investments in new technologies, and how patents on existing technologies affect follow-on innovation – needed to inform the question of how patents affect research investments, and review the available evidence which has attempted to empirically estimate these parameters.
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