We study how fragmentation of patent rights ('patent thickets') and the formation of the Court of Appeal for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) affected the duration of patent disputes, and thus the speed of technology diffusion through licensing. We develop a model of patent litigation which predicts...

This paper reviews the literature on benefits and (potential) problems from university patenting and licensing activity, based on 109 papers published between 1980 to 2004. Reasons for university patenting activities include positive influence on researchers' careers, prestige and earnings;...

Using a new dataset encompassing more than 2,200 inventions made by Max Planck Society researchers from 1980 to 2004, we explore how licensee and technology characteristics affect the licensing and commercialization of technologies from public research. We find no evidence that spin-offs and...

The university-spin off company is a specific but rather effective tool for the direct transfer of knowledge and new technology from academia into business. However, this seems to be still a not very common phenomenon in many European countries. The paper aims to compare the characteristics of...

In his recent discussion of regional innovation systems (RIS), Philip Cooke outlines the two starkly different interpretations of regional innovation systems. (Regional Innovation Systems, Asymmetric Knowledge and the Legacies of Learning, Draft 2007). He notes in his review, "Clearly, there are...

This paper analyzes the drivers of multinational affiliates' R&D intensity, using a unique dataset based on the fourth Community Innovation Survey for Belgium. Specifically, we investigate the role of foreign affiliates' local (host country) embeddedness and of host country spillovers on foreign...

Firms can use different sources of external knowledge for developing and implementing innovations. Some knowledge is provided deliberately by the source and constitutes intended knowledge spillovers, e.g., knowledge disclosed in publications or patent files. Other sources represent unintended...

Using new data on citations to university patents and scientific publications, and measures of distance based on Google maps, we study how geography affects university knowledge diffusion. We show that knowledge flows from patents are localized in two respects: they decline sharply with distance...

We analyze the sustainability of a conversation when one agent might be endowed with a piece of private information that affects the payoff distribution to its benefit. Such a secret can compromise the sustainability of conversation. Even without an obligation, the secret holder will disclose...