This article argues that the consequences of the ‘fragmentation’ of the European patent system are more dramatic than the mere prohibitive costs of maintaining a patent in force in many jurisdictions. The prevalence of national jurisdictions, which are highly heterogeneous in their costs and...

We analyze the impact of national pharmaceutical regulation on the launch delay of new chemical entities approved by the EMEA’s centralized procedure. We find that direct price control regimes have a significantly negative impact on the launch timing. These results cannot be found when...

This policy contribution by Bruno von Pottelsberghe argues that the number of priority filings should be used as a patent-based measure of Europe's innovation performance. It also identifies several policies that may affect the R&D-patent relationship.

This paper analyzes firms' choices regarding the geographic scope of patent protection within the European patent system. We develop an econometric model at the patent level to quantify the impact of office fees and translation costs on firms' decision to validate a patent in a particular...