Measuring follow-on innovation

Janet Freilich and Sepehr Shahshahani

Research Policy, 2023, vol. 52, issue 9

Abstract: How patents affect follow-on innovation is a key question for the patent system. We disaggregate follow-on innovation into activities that infringe patents and others that do not infringe but can be indirectly affected by patents. Replicating an important study using our disaggregated measure, we find that 87 percent of follow-on scientific publications describing patented genes do not constitute patent infringement. Supplementing our empirical strategy with data on patent expiration dates, we find that gene patents which are not close to expiration cause an increase in noninfringing follow-on research, but the effect disappears for patents close to expiration. Our nuanced measure helps better identify the mechanisms of patents’ effect, reconcile disparate results in the literature, and evaluate policy reform.

Keywords: Follow-on innovation; Patents; Patent infringement; Intellectual property (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K20 O31 O34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:respol:v:52:y:2023:i:9:s0048733323001385

DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2023.104854

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