The Impact of International Patent Systems: Evidence from Accession to the European Patent Convention

Bronwyn Hall and Christian Helmers ()

No 24207, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We analyze the impact of accession to the regional patent system established by the European Patent Convention (EPC) on 14 countries that acceded between 2000 and 2008. We look at changes in patenting behavior by domestic and foreign applicants at the national patent offices and the European Patent Office (EPO). Our findings suggest a strong change in patent filing behavior among foreigners seeking patent protection in the accession states, substituting EPO patents for domestic patents immediately. However, there is little evidence that accession increased FDI by patenting foreign companies in accession countries. Moreover, there is no discernible reaction among domestic entities in terms of domestic filings, although we do find some evidence that applicants in accession states increased their propensity to file patents with the EPO post-accession. Inventor-level information suggests that the underlying inventions originate in the accession states

JEL-codes: F53 F55 O34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-ino and nep-ipr
Note: ITI PR
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published as Bronwyn H. Hall & Christian Helmers, 2019. "The impact of international patent systems: Evidence from accession to the European Patent Convention," Research Policy, vol 48(9).

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w24207.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The impact of international patent systems: Evidence from accession to the European Patent Convention (2019)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24207

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w24207

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().