Are foreigners treated equally under the TRIPs Agreement?

Gaétan de Rassenfosse, Paul Jensen, T'Mir Julius, Alfons Palangkaraya and Elizabeth Webster ()
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T'Mir Julius: University of Melbourne

Working Papers from Chair of Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy

Abstract: The TRIPS Agreement, administered by the World Trade Organisation, ensures the smooth functioning of the international patent system. It promises among others that local and foreign firms are treated in the same, non-discriminatory manner. We test for whether national treatment has been upheld in the five largest patent offices and document the existence of a systematic bias against foreign firms in patent examination decisions. We find that filing international patent applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty can reduce some of the bias.

Keywords: discrimination; global patent system; national treatment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F13 F23 K2 K4 O34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2019-11
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:iip:wpaper:16

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