A growing chorus of voices is sounding a common refrain - the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) is issuing far too many bad patents. These criticisms are complicated by the rather surprising fact that we don't actually know what percentage of patent applications actually issue as patents....

Growth during the 1980s and 1990s in patenting and licensing by American universities is frequently asserted to be a direct consequence of the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980. However, there has been little empirical analysis of the effects of this legislation. This paper uses previously unexploited data...

Links between R&D in U.S. industry and research in U.S. universities have a long history, but recent developments in this relationship, especially the growth in university patenting and licensing of technologies to private firms, have attracted considerable attention. The effects of the...

The Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 facilitated the retention by universities of patent rights resulting from government funded academic research, thus encouraging university entry into patenting and licensing. Though the Act is widely recognized to be a major change in federal policy towards academic...

There has recently been a resurgence of interest in how institutions affect economic performance. A review of this literature reveals that the concept of an 'institution' means different things to different scholars, both within economics and across the social sciences. This paper discusses what...

During World War II, the U.S. government's Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) undertook one of the largest public investments in applied R&D in U.S. history, entering into thousands of contracts with firms and universities to perform research essential to the war effort. Using...

World War II was one of the most acute emergencies in U.S. history, and the first where mobilizing science and technology was a major part of the government response. The U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) led a major research effort to develop technologies and medical...

This paper introduces a newly digitized, open-access version of the Food and Drug Administration's "Orange Book"--a linkage between approved small-molecule drugs and the patents that protect them. The Orange Book also reports any applicable regulatory exclusivity that prevents competitive entry....