After briefly examining the US challenge and the international and European dimensions of patent regulations, this paper devotes special attention to the short-term and long-term issues facing the European patent system. The concluding remarks reflect upon the problems and possible solutions...

We analyse the structural changes that have characterised the organisation of industrial R&D over the last 25 years. Taking Mowery's work (Industrial and Corporate Change, 2009, 18(1), 1–50) on the US as a starting point, we reconsider the different aspects of structural change he examined,...