Journal article
Why do patents facilitate trade in technology? Testing the disclosure and appropriation effects
G De Rassenfosse, A Palangkaraya, E Webster
Research Policy | ELSEVIER | Published : 2016
Abstract
Evidence suggests that patents facilitate technology transactions but the reasons for the effect are unclear. Patents may assist trade in technology by either: (i) protecting buyers against the expropriation of the idea (the 'appropriation effect'); or (II) increasing information sharing during the negotiation phase through publication of technical details contained in the patent document (the 'disclosure effect'). We estimate the strength of both effects using exact matching analysis on a novel dataset of 860 technology transaction negotiations. We find evidence for the appropriation but not the disclosure effect. Technology transaction negotiations involving a granted patent instead of a p..
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Grants
Awarded by Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the editor, Ashish Arora, and two anonymous referees for very helpful comments. The authors have also benefited from constructive comments from Sean Applegate, William Bird, George Chondrakis, Charlie Day, Rowan Gilmore, John Haisken-DeNew, Dietmar Harhoff, Christian Helmers, Karin Hoisl, Katrin Hussinger, Paul Jensen, John Kapeleris, Bruno Lambrecht, Di Nicol, Henry Sauermann, Karen Sinclair, Kannan Srikanth, Valerio Sterzi, Russell Thomson, and Andrew Toole as well as from participants at: the 2012 EPIP conference in Leuven, Belgium; the 2013 ZEW-MaCCI Conference on the Economics of Innovation and Patenting in Mannheim, Germany; the 2013 Searle Center Sixth Conference on Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Northwestern University in Chicago; the 2013 DRUID Conference at ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Spain; and the 2013 Conference on Patent Use by the UK Intellectual Property Office in London, United Kingdom. Funding for this research comes from Intellectual Property Research Institute of Australia and the ARC LP0989343. Linkage partners were IP Australia, the Australian Institute for Commercialization, and Watermark Patent and Trademark Attorneys.