This paper develops a methodology to compare the quality of examination services in different patent offices. Quality … is defined as the extent to which patent offices comply with their patentability conditions in a transparent way. The … of patent offices in Europe (EPO), Japan (JPO) and the US (USPTO) shows that their operational designs differ …

mechanisms for medium inventions, and patent their most important innovations. This result reestablishes the traditional view …

This paper investigates how patent applications and grants held by new ventures improve their ability to attract … British biotechnology companies we have identified all patents filed at the European Patent Office (EPO). Applying hazard rate … analysis, we find that in the presence of patent applications, VC financing occurs earlier. Our results also show that VCs pay …

We investigate incidence and evolution of patent thickets. Our empirical analysis is based on a theoretical model of … patenting in complex and discrete technologies. The model captures how competition for patent portfolios and complementarity of … patent thickets is introduced. European patent citations are used to construct measures of fragmentation and technological …

The aim of this paper is to test whether patent-based indicators are still reliable measures of innovativeness in light … already under way respectively at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the European Patent Office (EPO). For most … this purpose, we use a unique data set which collects balance sheet items and patent information from EPO and USPTO. After …

. Using a binary size measure, we find strong support for the traditional view that firms patent their most important …