Prophetic Patents
In most contexts, making up data is forbidden - considered fraudulent, even immoral. Not so in patents. Patents often contain experimental data, and it is perfectly acceptable for these experiments [...]
The Paradoxes of Patenting: Invention and Its Diffusion in 18th- and 19th-Century Britain, France, and North America
This article deals with a period of transition for most patent systems in Europe and North America, from instruments of royal prerogative power to specialized and statute-based weapons of capitalist [...]
Appropriating the Returns from Industrial Research and Development
This paper describes the results of an inquiry into appropriability conditions in more than one hundred manufacturing industries. We discuss how this information has been and might be used to [...]
Aiming for the Goal: Contribution Dynamics of Crowdfunding
We study reward-based crowdfunding campaigns, a new class of dynamic contribution games where consumption is exclusive. Two types of backers participate: buyers want to consume the product while donors just [...]
The Access to Knowledge Mobilization and the New Politics of Intellectual Property
Intellectual Property law was once an arcane subject. Today it is at the center of some of the most highly charged political contests of our time. In recent years, college [...]
From Revolving Doors to Regulatory Capture? Evidence from Patent Examiners
Many regulatory agency employees are hired by the firms they regulate, creating a “revolving door” between government and the private sector. We study these transitions using detailed data from the [...]
Academics’ Motives, Opportunity Costs and Commercial Activities Across Fields
Scholarly work seeking to understand academics’ commercial activities often draws on abstract notions of the institution of science and of the representative scientist. Few scholars have examined whether and how [...]
How Many Life-Years Have New Drugs Saved? A 3-Way Fixed-Effects Analysis of 66 Diseases in 27 Countries, 2000-2013
"We analyze the role that the launch of new drugs has played in reducing the number of years of life lost (YLL) before 3 different ages (85, 70, and 55) [...]
Crafting Intellectual Property Rights: Implications for Patent Assertion Entities, Litigation, and Innovation
We show that examiner-driven variation in patent rights leads to quantitatively large impacts on several patent outcomes, including patent value, citations, and litigation. Notably, Patent Assertion Entities (PAEs) overwhelmingly purchase [...]
Annual Intellectual Property Report to Congress
The United States government is taking a targeted, practical, and comprehensive approach toward addressing intellectual property policy and strategy. The goal is to ensure a level playing field for American [...]