One of the objectives of patent systems is to disclose information which other agents can build on in further inventions and in their decision-making. While some observers take it as given that real-world patent systems serve this objective, we argue in this article that patent systems are...

Innovation processes within corporations increasingly tap into international technology sources, yet little is known about the relative contribution of different types of innovation channels. We investigate the effectiveness of different types of international technology sourcing activities...

This paper provides a direct measure of the density of patent thickets based on patent citations. We discuss the algorithm that generates the measure and present descriptive results validating it. Moreover, we identify technology areas particularly affected by patent thickets.

This paper discusses methods for the harmonization and combination of large-scale patent and trademark datasets with each other and other sources of data. Dictionary- and rule-based approaches to the consolidation of applicant names in patent data are presented and shown to have both benefits...

Ein Schlüsselfaktor für das wirtschaftliche Wachstum und für die internationale Wettbewerbsfähigkeit der deutschen Wirtschaft bilden die Innovationsanstrengungen der Unternehmen. Durch die Globalisierung der Märkte wird die Fähigkeit, neue Produkte, neue technische Verfahren und Ideen...

Die von der Regierungskoalition vorgelegten Gesetzentwürfe zur Unternehmenssteuerreform 1999, 2000 und 2002 wurden von Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW) und Lehrstuhl Prof. Jacobs hinsichtlich ihrer ökonomischen Auswirkungen auf den Unternehmenssektor sowie einiger...