Claiming More: The Increased Voluminosity of Patent Applications and its Determinants

Guellec, Dominique; van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie, Bruno; van Zeebroeck, Nicolas

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Claiming More: The Increased Voluminosity of Patent Applications and its Determinants

CEPR Discussion Paper No. 5971

28 Pages Posted: 7 Jan 2007

See all articles by Dominique Guellec

Dominique Guellec

Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD)

Bruno van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie

Free University of Brussels - Solvay Business School; Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) - Department of Applied Economics (DULBEA); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Nicolas van Zeebroeck

Université Libre de Bruxelles, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, iCite

Date Written: December 2006

Abstract

The joint increase in the number and size of patents filed around the world puts the patent system under pressure. This paper analyses the sources of this surge in number of claims and pages of patent applications at the EPO. Four hypotheses are scrutinized: the diffusion of national drafting practices, the increasing complexity of inventions, the emergence of new sectors, and new patenting strategies. The results show that the increasing voluminosity is explained by all these hypotheses and suggest that the diffusion of the US model through the PCT is one of the major factors driving the size of EPO patent applications.

Keywords: Patent voluminosity, patent applications, IP strategy, claim drafting, patent systems

JEL Classification: O31, O34, O50

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Guellec, Dominique and van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie, Bruno and van Zeebroeck, Nicolas, Claiming More: The Increased Voluminosity of Patent Applications and its Determinants (December 2006). CEPR Discussion Paper No. 5971, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=955299