Claiming more: the increased voluminosity of patent applications and its determinants

Nicolas van Zeebroeck (), Bruno van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie and Dominique Guellec ()
Additional contact information
Dominique Guellec: OECD -DSTI, Paris.

No 06-018.RS, Working Papers CEB from Université Libre de Bruxelles, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Centre Emile Bernheim (CEB)

Abstract: The joint increase in the number and size of patents filed around the world puts the patent system under pressure. This paper analyses the sources of this surge in number of claims and pages of patent applications at the EPO. Four hypotheses are scrutinized: the diffusion of national drafting practices, the increasing complexity of inventions, the emergence of new sectors, and new patenting strategies. The results show that the increasing voluminosity is explained by all these hypotheses and suggest that the diffusion of the US model through the PCT is one of the major factors driving the size of EPO patent applications.

Keywords: Patent voluminosity; Patent applications; IP strategy; Claim drafting; Patent systems. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O31 O34 O50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ino and nep-tid
Date: Written
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http://www.solvay.edu/EN/Research/Bernheim/documents/wp06018.pdf Last version, 2008 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Claiming More: The Increased Voluminosity of Patent Applications and its Determinants (2006)
Journal Article: Claiming more: the Increased Voluminosity of Patent Applications and its Determinants (2009)
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