The paper explores the possible consequences for academic research of increased patenting in European universities. It underlines that most of the policy literature refers to the advantages of university patenting without balancing them against the costs or the risks involved in the activities....

This paper analyses the development of universities' patent applications in Germany before and after the abolition of the 'professors' privilege' in 2002. By means of a database with all patent applications of German universities with professors among the inventors (1990-2006), systematic...

We examine ownership patterns of German university-invented patents before and after the abolition of the professors' privilege in 2002 to explore how the legal change affected patenting activities. Our data show a shift from individually-owned and firm-owned patents to university-owned patents,...

The 2004 election year provided many focus points for those interested in stem cell research and its potential outcomes. California's Proposition 71, in particular, has arguably led the way to a new era of state and local public funding of stem cell research. This article does not address the...

This essay makes two related contributions. First, it introduces the concept of “patent pull” to highlight an underexplored demand-side perspective on patents. Patents “pull” (private and public) investment to productive activities that would be less attractive in the absence of patents....