In this paper, we have used an original survey of patent utilization to empirically examine whether the timings of patent-related behaviors in Japanese firms (e.g., the year a patent application was filed, the year a patent examination was requested, and the year a patent right lapsed)...

The purpose of this paper is to examine an influence on the location choice of Japanese research laboratories in the US by clusters. In some details, in order to examine the presence of agglomeration economies, we show that whether Japanese research laboratories in the US are located in industry...

This paper empirically investigates the effects of patent thickets. One unique feature of our study is to identify two sources of patent thickets: (1) complementarity as measured by the number of the patents to be used jointly with the focal patent in commercialization, and (2) ownership...

While numerous researchers can access current large patent databases, the presence of numerous non-standard applicant names presents a huge obstacle to their effective use. This paper explains the characteristics of Japanese patent applicant names and offers a potential solution to current...

This report presents an overview of the results of an inventor survey, focusing on Japanese inventions for which priority claims were filed during the period 2003 to 2005 with both the Japan Patent Office (JPO) and the European Patent Office (EPO). This survey, conducted as a part of an...

A significant part of the patents held by a firm are not used. We show that, given the uncertainty of invention quality at the patent application stage and the sunk cost incurred for obtaining and developing a patent, the patent (internal) utilization rate declines with the (anticipated) size of...