On the price elasticity of demand for patents

Gaetan de Rassenfosse and Bruno van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie

No 08-031.RS, Working Papers CEB from Université Libre de Bruxelles, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Centre Emile Bernheim (CEB)

Abstract: This paper investigates whether patent fee policies are a potential factor underlying the boom in patent applications observed in major patent offices. We provide the first panel-based evidence suggesting that fees affect the demand for patents in three major patent offices (EPO, USPTO and JPO), with a price elasticity of about -0.4 (similar to that of the residential demand for oil or water). The laxity of fee policies adopted by patent offices over the past 25 years therefore contributed, to a significant extent, to the rising propensity to patent observed since the mid-nineties. This is especially true at the European Patent Office, which has dramatically decreased its fees since the mid-1990s.

Keywords: patent cost; patenting fees; price elasticity; patent systems; propensity to patent (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O30 O31 O38 O57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ino and nep-ipr
Date: 2008-10
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http://www.solvay.edu/EN/Research/Bernheim/documents/wp08031.pdf First version, 2008 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: On the Price Elasticity of Demand for Patents (2008)
Working Paper: On the price elasticity of demand for patents (2008)
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