[Patents] reasons for explosion of patent application numbers

[Jim Bessen" <jbessen@researchoninnovation.org (Jim Bessen)]

> There has been some talk about the explosion of pat appl numbers worldwide
> and one explanation is that this is largely due to the entry of new
> countries such as India, which were pushed into the worldwide system
> of extensive patenting by the TRIPS treaty.  Others say that more and
> more people are inventing things, yet another hypothesis is that patents
> are becoming increasingly easy to obtain for a broad range of ideas.
> Maybe all are true, but we don't know to which extent they explain the
> increase.
>

There is some academic work on this subject. Sam Kortum and Josh Lerner wrote 
a paper (NBER working paper and in Research Policy) arguing (based on 
international patenting rates) that the rise is due to better management of 
R&D. But Bronwyn Hall and Rosemarie Ziedonis [Rand, 2001] do a much more 
thorough analysis of the semiconductor industry and find the rise due to 
changes in the legal environment, especially the pro-patent courts.


========================================
James Bessen
Research on Innovation
jbessen@researchoninnovation.org

> There has been some talk about the explosion of pat appl numbers worldwide
> and one explanation is that this is largely due to the entry of new
> countries such as India, which were pushed into the worldwide system
> of extensive patenting by the TRIPS treaty.  Others say that more and
> more people are inventing things, yet another hypothesis is that patents
> are becoming increasingly easy to obtain for a broad range of ideas.
> Maybe all are true, but we don't know to which extent they explain the
> increase.
>

There is some academic work on this subject. Sam Kortum and Josh Lerner wrote a paper (NBER working paper and in Research Policy) arguing (based on international patenting rates) that the rise is due to better management of R&D. But Bronwyn Hall and Rosemarie Ziedonis [Rand, 2001] do a much more thorough analysis of the semiconductor industry and find the rise due to changes in the legal environment, especially the pro-patent courts.

 

 

========================================
James Bessen
Research on Innovation
jbessen@researchoninnovation.org