In this paper it is argued that the evolution towards using the IPR system in support of ‘open innovation’ processes in services, based upon sharing information, knowledge, ideas and (cultural) expressions, has been led by firms and industry in their strategic interactive or collaborative IP management, rather than led by government policy designing the law and enforcement.  read more »

This paper employs data from an extensive European survey to produce one of the first systematic assessments of the private economic value of patents. The estimated mean of our patent value distribution is higher than 3 million Euros, the median is about one-tenth, and the mode is around a few thousand Euros.  read more »

With four major companies sharing more than 85% of the market share, the recording industry is one of the most concentrated industries. While this market concentration has been traditionally linked with high barriers to entry, recent technological changes have made these barriers almost disappear.  read more »

Intellectual property rights are often the mainstay of industry structure in industries where the value of products is strongly dependent on technological innovation and the creation of new content. However, producing novel intellectual property and then ensuring adequate returns on investment is subject to uncertainties such as new technologies, change in property rights regimes, and illegal reproduction.  read more »

Evolution of the unique place of innovation and invention is complemented by the recent discussions regarding the significance of creativity. While the industrialization process of nations and the endogenous growth theorists underline the need for the protection and subsidization of the innovation, we find it necessary to include the output of creativity into the process.  read more »

This paper proposes a unified conceptual framework to analyse the multiple role and consequences of patents in the case of biotechnology research tools. We argue that the knowledge/information and independent/complementary nature of research tools define heterogeneous frameworks in which the patent system plays different roles.  read more »

This article investigates the relation between the level of publicness of digital goods – i.e. their degree of non-excludability and non-rivalness – and the pirating behaviour of the consumers.  read more »