There has been a wide-spread misconception based on the imprecise wording of Art. 52 of the European Patent Convention (EPC) that the protection of business methods by patents is prohibited in Europe. This paper investigates the legal framework set by patent laws with respect to the...

Herbert Zech, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, fällt insgesamt ein positives Urteil zum Patentschutz: Er ermögliche technische Innovation in Bereichen, in denen sich Entwicklungsaktivitäten wegen leichter Nachahmbarkeit und hohen Investitionsbedarfs ansonsten nicht lohnen würden....

Patent-based measures are frequently used as indicators in empirical research on innovation and technological change. Currently, there is little evidence as to what extent patent-based indicators relate to product market outcomes. Using a unique dataset that links outcomes from product...

Patent-based measures are frequently used as indicators in empirical research on innovation and technology as well as on firms' strategies and organizational choices to characterize inventions or, more generally, innovative activities and the technological capabilities of organizations. A clear...

Markush structures are molecular skeletons containing not only specific atoms but also placeholders to represent broad sets of chemical (sub)structures. As genus claims, they allow a vast number of compounds to be claimed in a patent application without having to specify every single chemical...