Intellectual Property

How Innovative Are Innovations? A Multidimensional, Survey-Based Approach

Innovation can be difficult to measure, and some major technical advances have less impact on social welfare than expected. Surveys of innovation should consider five key factors in assessing the importance of an innovation.

Reforming the Patent System

Three tailored patent reforms would improve the patent system without requiring more evidence as to whether stronger patent protection promotes innovation generally.

Licensing Standard Essential Patents with FRAND Commitments: Preparing for 5G Mobile Telecommunications

As 5G mobile telecommunication technologies develop, some have proposed that courts or administrative agencies should regulate licensing of Standard Essential Patents (SEPs).

Finding Reasonable Royalty Damages: A Contract Approach to Patent Infringement 

Courts differ as to how to calculate damages for patent infringement. The best approach would be for courts to construct an “informed contract” between the parties to the dispute.

A Toolkit of Policies to Promote Innovation

Innovation is an important route to continued productivity growth in the United States. Tax credits for research and development (R&D) are among the best ways to spur innovation. Evidence as to whether the patent system promotes innovation is inconclusive.

Increasing Diversity in Innovation by Tracking Women, Minority, and Startups: Innovators that Patent and Supporting Experimentation in Inclusive Innovation

The Study of Underrepresented Classes Chasing Engineering and Science Success (SUCCESS) Act of 2018 requires the United States Patent Office (USPTO) to better support women, minorities, and veterans in innovation.

Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation: Evidence from the Human Genome

Intellectual property (IP) is intended to encourage innovation. For two years, Celera held exclusive IP rights to data about some human genes. During this time, other firms reduced research and development (R&D) related to these genes from 20-30%. These effects persisted for years after.

Growth Through Heterogeneous Innovations

A firm’s size affects its choice of innovation strategy. A new economic model of innovation helps explain the tendency of new entrants and incumbent producers to innovate differently, and their differing effects of economic growth.

Inequalities, Innovation, and Patents

The benefits of innovation are not distributed equally. The patent system is intended to maximize innovation and supports equality of opportunity, but does not consistently redistribute the benefits of innovation.

How Essential are Standard-Essential Patents?

Standard-essential patents (SEPs) cover technologies needed to make complex products like wi-fi. Patent trolls that assert SEPs in court win few cases, often because the patent was not actually infringed.