firms may protect their inventions by means of intellectual property rights, such as patents. By taking out a patent … functioning of the contemporary patent system. We find that patenting firms are being less confronted with imitation. The effect … of patents on the dissemination of R&D findings is, however, insignificant. Therefore, we conclude that patent …

PCT patent applications reach only a third of the non-Chinese quality benchmark, the extension towards domestic and self … are to be interpreted as a measure of patent quality. …