The ownership of academic patents and their impact. Evidence from five European countries

Francesco Lissoni and Fabio Montobbio

Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) from Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA)

Abstract: This paper compares the value and impact of academic patents in five European countries with different institutional frameworks: Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Ownership patterns of academic patents are found to: (i) differ greatly across country, due to a combination of legal norms on IP and institutional features of the university system; (ii) be strongly associated to academic patents\' value, as measured by patent citations. Company-owned academic patents tend to be as cited as non-academic ones, while university-owned tend to be less cited. Academic patents in the Netherlands are more cited than non-academic ones, irrespective to their ownership, while university-owned patents get fewer citations in both France and Italy. We propose an explanation of these results based on the different autonomy and experience in dealing with IP and technology transfer enjoyed by universities in the countries considered. We also find that company-owned academic patents in Sweden get many fewer citations than non-academic. Individually-owned academic patents are more cited than non-academic patents similarly owned by their inventors.

Keywords: Academic patents; Academic entrepreneurship; Patent citations; University system; Technology Transfer; Professor privilege (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O31 O32 O33 O34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ent, nep-eur, nep-ino, nep-ipr, nep-pr~ and nep-sbm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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Related works:
Journal Article: The Ownership of Academic Patents and Their Impact. Evidence from Five European Countries (2015)
Working Paper: The ownership of academic patents and their impact. Evidence from five European countries (2015)
Working Paper: The ownership of academic patents and their impact: Evidence from five European countries (2015)
Working Paper: The ownership of academic patents and their impact. Evidence from five European countries (2012)
Working Paper: The ownership of academic patents and their impact. Evidence from five European countries (2012)
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