Chapter 1 discusses the econometric pitfalls associated with the use of patent production functions to study the invention process. It then goes on to argue that a sound understanding of the invention process necessarily requires an understanding of the propensity to patent. The empirical analysis carried out in Chapter 1 seeks to explain the proportion of inventions patented – a potential metric for the propensity to patent – from an international sample of manufacturing firms. <p><p>Chapter 2 proposes a methodology to filter out the noise induced by varying patent practices in the R&D-patent relationship. The methodology explicitly decomposes the patent-to-R&D ratio into its components of productivity and propensity. It is then applied to a novel data set of priority patent applications in four countries and six industries.<p><p>Chapter 3 takes stock of the literature on the role of fees in patent systems while Chapter 4 presents estimates of the price elasticity of demand for patents at the trilateral offices (that is, in the U.S. Japan and Europe). The estimation of dynamic panel data models of patent applications suggests that the long-term price elasticity is about -0.30.<p> / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Le problème posé par les brevets dans le secteur de la santé, notamment dans l’accès aux nouveaux médicaments par les populations à faibles revenus des pays en développement, s’est posé après l’entrée en vigueur de l’Accord sur les ADPIC, dans la foulée de la création de l’OMC, en janvier 1995. Bien que cette question soit connue et documentée, les solutions proposées n’ont pas permis de la résoudre. Cette thèse soutient que l’approche adoptée jusqu’ici qui est essentiellement fondée sur l’idée d’aide publique au développement ou sur des considérations éthiques n’est pas appropriée pour y apporter une réponse adéquate et efficace. Elle propose donc de changer de paradigme et d’analyser la question sous une autre approche, celle des biens publics mondiaux. En partant de la définition et des caractéristiques de ce concept, elle montre que les données brevetées rentrent dans cette catégorie de biens. À partir de cette conclusion, elle suggère que la résolution de ce problème passe par le financement des brevets et de la recherche médicale par des fonds publics internationaux. Ainsi, les brevets portant sur les inventions les plus innovants seraient rachetés par un mécanisme international institué à cette fin et dont les ressources proviendraient de la participation de tous, comme pour les biens publics nationaux. Cette proposition s’appuie sur des précédents. En effet, bien qu’il soit encore à ses débuts, le financement international des biens publics mondiaux est un mécanisme qui se met en place et semble convaincre les pays, notamment dans le domaine de l’environnement, de la nécessité de gérer collectivement le problème du réchauffement climatique. Avec l’internationalisation de plus en plus croissante des épidémies dans le sillage de la circulation mondialisée des biens et des personnes, la lutte internationalisée contre ces épidémies se présente aussi comme un impératif parce que la communauté de la menace est évidente. Cependant, l’opérationnalisation de cette lutte est confrontée à certaines difficultés, étant donné qu’il n’existe pas d’autorité supranationale pour assurer la participation de tous à cet effort. Comme sur le plan interne, ce sont ces problèmes de gestion de l’action collective que l’humanité doit contrôler dans le but de répondre efficacement aux défis auxquels elle doit faire face. Mots clés : accès aux médicaments, brevets, biens publics mondiaux, Accord sur les ADPIC, fonds internationaux, licences obligatoires, pays en développement. / The problem posed by patents in the healthcare sector, in particular in the access to new medicine by the low-income populations of developing countries, has arose after the coming into force of the TRIPS Agreement, following the creation of the WTO in january 1995. Although the question is known and documented, the proposed solutions did not allow solving it. This thesis supports that the approach adopted up to here which is essentially based on the idea of public aid in the development or on the ethical considerations is not adequate. It thus suggests changing paradigm and analyzing the question under another approach, that of the concept of the global public goods. After analyzing the definition and the characteristics of this concept, the thesis concludes that the patented data go into this category of the global public goods. From this conclusion, it suggests that the resolution of this problem passes by the financing of these world public goods by international public money. So, patents concerning the most innovative inventions would be acquired by an international mechanism established to this end and the resources of which would come from the participation of all, as for the national public goods. Although it is still in its early stages, the international financing of the global public goods is a mechanism which is set up, in particular in the field of the environment to manage collectively the problem of the global warming. With the more and more increasing internationalization of the epidemics in the trail of the globalized flows of goods and people, the common fight against these epidemics appears from now as an obvious fact. However, the implementation of this fight is confronted with certain difficulties, given that there is no supranational authority to assure the participation of all in this effort. As on the internal plan, it is these problems of the collective action that the humanity has to control in order to manage effectively the challenges which it has to face. Key words: Access to medicine, patents, world public goods, TRIPS Agreement, international funds, the compulsory licenses, developing countries.

Ce mémoire de maîtrise porte sur l’appréhension des transferts de technologie entre l’Union européenne et la Chine continentale. L’objectif de cette étude est de déterminer quelles sont les garanties offertes par le droit à l’émetteur d’un transfert de technologie vers la Chine. Même si le droit chinois démontre des améliorations notoires, les transferts restent des opérations risquées. Les entreprises de l’Union européenne doivent prendre toutes les précautions nécessaires pour protéger leurs inventions et secrets d’affaires. L’entrée de la Chine à l’OMC et les dernières réformes démontrent les efforts du législateur chinois pour aligner sa réglementation en matière de droit de la propriété intellectuelle et droit de la concurrence. Le droit des brevets chinois s’est fortement rapproché des systèmes de droit occidentaux. Il en va de même pour la protection des renseignements non-divulgués. Toutefois, le décalage entre la norme et la pratique reste un obstacle. Les transferts de technologie nécessitent pour leur mise en oeuvre, un contrat international auquel de nombreuses règles impératives s’appliquent afin de protéger les intérêts sociaux-économiques chinois. Pour autant, l’accès à un marché de plus d’un milliard de personnes restent un argument déterminant pour les entreprises qui ne peuvent souvent pas passer à côté d’une telle opportunité.

L’architecture théâtrale en France de la Révolution au Second Empire :théorie, innovation, réglementation, réalisationsA l’avènement de la Révolution, la France connait en termes d’architecture théâtrale une période particulièrement foisonnante. L’impulsion donnée sous Louis XV au théâtre porte ses fruits et la société manifeste pendant les dernières décennies du XVIIIe siècle, et ce malgré l’opposition de l’église, un engouement prononcé pour le spectacle, appelé plus tard théâtromanie. Tout au long du XIXe siècle, le théâtre occupe une place privilégiée dans la vie culturelle et sociale de la France. L’édifice théâtral sert alors à cristalliser les aspirations des différents publics qui le fréquentent et fait l’objet de multiples réflexions, aussi bien du point de vue théorique que dans le domaine de l’innovation. Etant parmi les rares bâtiments civils à accueillir un public aussi nombreux et diversifié, il devient également un lieu privilégié d’expérimentation, en termes de salubrité et de systèmes techniques.Les nuisances qui accompagnent son implantation dans la ville et les multiples incendies qui détruisent différents théâtres à travers l’Europe conduisent aux instances au pouvoir à réglementer, de plus en plus, le fonctionnement des théâtres jusqu’à émettre des préconisations qui ont à trait à la configuration même de son cadre bâti.Ainsi, l’architecture théâtrale de la première moitié du XIXe siècle revêt plusieurs facettes qu’il était nécessaire d’explorer afin de comprendre ce qui contribue à modeler l’image du théâtre « à la française » dont l’Opéra de Paris devient le plus haut représentant en France comme à l’international. / Theatre architecture in France fromFrench Revolution to Second Empiretheory, innovation, legislation, constructionAt the dawn of the Revolution, a vague of theatrical constructions embraces France. The impulse which had been given under Louis XV to theatres bear now fruit. Furthermore, despite the opposition of the Church, the French society expresses a real enthusiasm for spectacles that one will later call “theatremania”. During the whole nineteenth century, theatres occupy a privileged position in the cultural and social life in France. The theatrical buildings contribute to crystallize the ambitions of the attended public. By consequence, theatres are an object of thinking, weather it is on the level of architectural theory, or on the level of innovation. Representing a typology of public buildings which host a very numerous and a very diversified public, the theatre becomes a privileged space of experimentation, in terms of public health as well as in terms of techniques. The noise pollution which accompanies its integration within the city, and the numerous fires that destroy a lot of theatres across Europe, lead the public administration to regulate more and more the functioning of theatres, to a point that these new regulations have an enormous impact on the architectural development of theatres.In this context, the theatrical architecture of the first half of nineteenth century takes several aspects which this work explores in order to illuminate the rise of the so-called theatre « à la française », of which Garnier’s Opéra de Paris will become the most prominent example.

L'interface entre la gouvernance mondiale des brevets et de la santé publique est très complexe et sujette aux tensions. Doté de flexibilités, le régime mondial des brevets devait être en mesure d'évoluer pour répondre aux préoccupations de santé publique. Malgré une réactivité initiale au début du millénaire, le régime s'est néanmoins depuis figé. Un quart de siècle après sa mise en œuvre, la pandémie de COVID-19 dirige le feu des projecteurs sur une gouvernance mondiale hésitante reposant sur un régime en apparence immuable. Si le droit international explique en partie la complexité de la régulation de cette interface, l'économie politique, quant à elle, offre des pistes d'explication à sa remarquable immuabilité. Empruntant une conception élargie des communautés épistémiques, cette recherche indique que l'interface entre la gouvernance des brevets et de la santé publique est plongée dans une compétition épistémique entre deux réseaux d'experts : l'un plus conservateur et prônant le statu quo de la gouvernance des brevets, et l'autre plus réformiste prônant plus de flexibilité face aux préoccupations de santé publique. Cette compétition persistante a accentué la polarisation entre les défenseurs de chaque perspective et, conséquemment, contribué à la stagnation des initiatives de réforme multilatérales. Le présent travail s'appuie sur des analyses de réseaux sociaux retraçant d'abord l'activité de chacune des communautés épistémiques et l'interactivité entre elles. Des entrevues semi-dirigées permettent ensuite d'interroger la manière et le degré selon lesquels la compétition épistémique est vécue par les membres de ces communautés et affecte les débats multilatéraux internationaux. L'assemblage théorique et méthodologique de cette recherche permet de jeter un regard novateur sur les communautés épistémiques et sur leur influence dans une interface de gouvernance. Plus encore, cette recherche contribue aux discussions nouvellement ravivées sur l'avenir de l'interface de gouvernance entre les brevets et la santé publique. / The governance interface between patents and public health is highly complex and is prone to tensions. Equipped with flexibilities, the global patent regime was meant to be able to evolve in response to public health concerns. Despite its initial reactiveness, the regime has since then frozen. A quarter of a century later, the COVID-19 pandemic has thrusted into the spotlight a hesitant global governance relying on an apparently immutable regime. If international law partly explains the regulatory complexity of this interface, international political economy offers explanation for its remarkable continuity. Adopting a broader conceptualization of epistemic communities, this research shows that the interface between the governance of patents and of public health has been plunged into an epistemic competition between two experts' networks: one more conservative and arguing in favor of the status quo in patent governance and another more reformist arguing for greater regulation flexibility for public health concerns. This ongoing competition has increased polarization between defendants of each perspective and, consequently, contributed to the stagnation of multilateral initiatives. This research builds on social network analyses to observe the activity of each epistemic community and the interactions between them. Semi-structured interviews then investigate how the epistemic competition is felt by the members of each epistemic community and to what extent it has affected the international multilateral debates. The theoretical and methodological framework of this research takes an innovative approach of epistemic communities and of their influence in a governance interface. Moreover, this research informs the newly revived discussions on the future of the governance interface between patents and public health.

Aussi loin que l’on remonte dans le temps, la protection de l’intérêt général est associée au système des brevets. Pourtant, ce concept flou a suscité une vive controverse au sujet du brevet pharmaceutique souvent accusé d’être un obstacle à l’accès aux innovations pharmaceutiques et de perpétuer la fracture sociale. À vrai dire, le brevet est un instrument juridique au service d’enjeux socio-économiques; il confère à l’invention une valeur marchande et n’a pas vocation à être un obstacle à l’accès aux innovations pharmaceutiques. En effet, des études concordantes ont montré que, d’une part, sans le brevet une très grande proportion d’innovations pharmaceutiques ne serait pas mise au point et, d’autre part, l’écartement ou l’expiration du brevet n’ont pas été accompagnés d’un achat massif de produits pharmaceutiques. En tout état de cause, le monopole lié au brevet est précaire et le refus du brevet pharmaceutique s’accompagnera, sans doute, d’un manque d’intérêt à investir dans les activités de recherche et développement pharmaceutiques. En outre, le droit des brevets apporte assez de correctifs pour favoriser la disponibilité des innovations pharmaceutiques pour résoudre le problème de leur accès. Cette thèse sort des sentiers battus pour proposer une relecture du brevet pharmaceutique, sous l’angle de l’analyse économique du droit; elle démontre qu’il sert l’intérêt général. La théorie suivant laquelle le brevet pharmaceutique protège et promeut l’intérêt général n’est pas liée à la question de l’accès aux innovations pharmaceutiques; elle s’entend des intérêts scientifiques et socio-économiques qui y sont associés. / As far as we go back in history, protecting the public interest has always been associated with the patent system. However, the vagueness of the concept of public interest has very often raised a huge controversy about pharmaceutical patent, particularly the affordability of innovative and patented pharmaceuticals. Nevertheless, no one can deny the usefulness of pharmaceutical innovations, and the patent system strongly contributes to fostering inventions in this sector. In fact, a patent is a legal tool favourable to socio-economic growth, and the need for patented inventions justifies their economic value. Therefore, the patent system cannot, as such, be viewed as hindering access to pharmaceutical innovations. According to major studies, first without the patent system, a very large proportion of pharmaceuticals would have never been brought to market, and second the exclusion or expiration of patents do not promote a massive purchase of pharmaceutical products. Furthermore, the patent monopoly has time limitation, and the ban of pharmaceutical patents will certainly be accompanied with a lack of investment in research and development activities in the sector. Moreover, the patent system provides flexibilties for access to innovative pharmaceuticals. In short, this dissertation breaks new ground, from a Law and economics perspective, by overturning the traditional understanding of pharmaceutical patents that have generally been viewed as contrary to the protection of the public interest. In fact, the notion that pharmaceutical patents protect and promote the public interest refers to their worthy scientific and socio-economic advantages.

Cette thèse traite de la protection juridique des savoirs traditionnels. Cette question est devenue un problème public à la faveur de la dénonciation, par plusieurs acteurs de la société civile, d'actes de biopiraterie. La biopiraterie désigne l'appropriation illicite des savoirs traditionnels des peuples autochtones ou des communautés locales (PACL) par des utilisateurs qui s'en servent pour fabriquer de nouveaux produits (alimentaires, cosmétiques ou pharmaceutiques) protégés par des droits de propriété intellectuelle – surtout des brevets –, sans toutefois reconnaitre l'apport des PACL dans la création de l'innovation protégée. Face à ce problème, le droit international propose deux réponses. D'une part, l'article 5(5) du Protocole de Nagoya, entré en vigueur le 12 octobre 2014, pose le principe du partage juste et équitable, avec les communautés autochtones ou locales, des avantages monétaires et non monétaires, résultant de l'utilisation de leurs savoirs traditionnels sur les vertus des plantes ou animaux. Ce principe est toutefois conditionné par les conditions et limites que peut fixer le droit national de l'État fournisseur. D'autre part, l'Organisation Mondiale de la Propriété Intellectuelle (OMPI) élabore depuis 18 ans des projets de lois spécifiques dites sui generis, pour protéger les savoirs traditionnels, invoquant l'inadéquation du brevet pour ce faire puisque les savoirs traditionnels ne rempliraient pas les conditions de nouveauté, d'inventivité et d'application industrielle requis par les droits nationaux de brevet. Ces deux solutions, considérées comme complémentaires, ne semblent toutefois pas parvenir à répondre efficacement au problème de la protection des savoirs traditionnels. Cette thèse cherche donc une solution juridique qui soit plus adaptée aux réalités vécues par les PACL. À partir de l'approche de la construction sociale du droit et des concepts de reconnaissance, d'équité et de justice environnementale, cette thèse veut comprendre comment se sont structuré les deux approches majoritaires concernant la protection des savoirs traditionnels associés aux ressources génétiques en droit international. Cette réflexion ouvre à la possibilité de remise en cause de la non-brevetabilité des savoirs traditionnels, grâce à une étude de trois cas de biopiraterie (les affaires du Hoodia gordonii, du Guiera senegalensis et de la Quassia amara). Elle suggère également, à l'occasion de la mise en œuvre du Protocole de Nagoya, une approche renouvelée et pragmatique du brevet comme outil de protection des savoirs traditionnels. / This thesis aims at contributing to the legal protection of traditional knowledge (TK). This topic has received an increasing international attention, thanks to the denunciation of misappropriation of the traditional knowledge (TK) of indigenous peoples or local communities (IPLCs) by the civil society. Such a misappropriation, also refers to as “biopiracy”, happens when users rely on the TK of IPLCs to make new food products, cosmetics or pharmaceuticals, obtain intellectual property rights – especially patents – on these products, without recognizing their contribution in the making of protected innovation. In response to this problem, international law proposes two answers. On one hand, Article 5(5) of the Nagoya Protocol, which entered into force on 12 October 2014, establishes the principle of fair and equitable sharing of the monetary and non-monetary benefits arising out of the use of the TK of IPLCs on the virtues of plants or animals. However, this principle is conditioned by the conditions and limits that may be set by the national law of the supplier State. On the other hand, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has been developing for the past 18 years specific sui generis legislation to protect TK in response to allegations of the inadequacy of patents to do so. In fact, TK is considered not to fulfill the conditions of novelty, inventiveness and industrial application required by national patent laws. These two solutions, considered complementary, do not seem to suit with an effective protection of TK. This thesis therefore seeks a legal solution that is more adapted to the realities experienced by the IPLCs. Building on a theoretical framework articulating the concepts of social construction, recognition and equity and environmental justice, this thesis aims at understanding of how the two major approaches concerning the protection of genetic resources in international law have been structured. This reflection opens the possibility to challenge the argument of non-patentability of TK based on the analysis of three biopiracy cases (the Hoodia gordonii, the Guiera Senegalensis and the Quassia amara cases). It also suggests, in the post-Nagoya era, a renewed and pragmatic approach to patent as an effective tool for the protection of traditional knowledge.

Compared to the globalized markets of goods and services, technology production has been often described as “far from globalized” and mainly concentrated in the home country of multinational enterprises. However, academics and international organizations recognize that research and development (R&D) activities are increasingly performed at the international level. In particular, the globalization of innovation is a major concern since it is at the crossroads of the rising importance of knowledge economy and the increasing international slicing of firms’ value chains. In this context, the main motivations of this thesis are to investigate the extent to which innovation takes place across national borders and to analyze the drivers of this phenomenon across countries and across industries. For this purpose, this dissertation provides new evidence on the globalization of innovation in four empirical essays using patent-based indicators.<p><p>First, the relevance of patent statistics as indicators of innovation is evaluated by studying the relationship between expenditures in R&D activities and patenting efforts. Chapter 2 decomposes this relationship at the industry level to shed light on the origins of the worldwide surge in patent applications. The empirical investigation of the R&D-patent relationship relies on a unique panel dataset composed of 18 manufacturing industries in 19 countries covering the period from 1987 to 2005, for which five broad patent indicators are developed. This study shows that patent applications at the industry level reflect not only research productivity, but also two main components of the propensity to patent which are firms’ strategic considerations: the decision to protect an invention with a patent (the “appropriability strategy”) and the number of patents filed to protect an innovation (the “filing strategy”). The comparison between the results for various patent count indicators provides also interesting insights. While some industries (computers and communication technologies) and countries (South Korea, Spain, and Poland) have experienced a drastic increase in patent applications, the ratio of priority patent applications to R&D expenditures has been generally constant. This result suggests that there has been no spurt in innovation productivity. In contrast, regional applications (filings at the United States Patent and Trademark Office or at the European Patent Office) have been increasing since the early 1990s, suggesting that the patent explosion observed in large regional patent offices is due to the greater globalization of intellectual property rights rather than a surge in research productivity. Innovative firms are increasingly targeting global markets and hence have a higher tendency to seek protection in key markets worldwide.<p><p>Chapter 3 introduces, firstly, aggregate patent-based indicators to measure the globalization of innovation production. Secondly, it describes the patterns in international technology production for a large panel dataset covering 21 industries in 29 countries from 1980 to 2005. A strong growth in the intensity of globalization of innovation is confirmed not only in terms of cross-border ownership of innovation, but also in terms of international technological collaborations. More interestingly, heterogeneity across countries and industries is observed. On the one hand, more innovative countries (or industries) do not present more globalized innovation footprint. On the other hand, the ownership of innovation is still strongly concentrated in a few countries, although its location is increasingly dispersed across the world. Thirdly, it investigates empirically two main opposing motives driving the internationalization of innovation: home-base augmenting and home-base exploiting strategies. The results show that the degree of internationalization of innovation is negatively related to the revealed technological advantage of countries across industries. Countries tend to be more technologically globalized in industrial sectors in which they are less technologically specialized. The empirical findings suggest also that countries with multidisciplinary technological knowledge are more likely to take part in international co-inventions of new technologies and to be attractive for foreign innovative firms. This aggregated patent-based analysis provides additional evidence that globalization of innovation is a means of acquiring competences abroad that are lacking at home, suggesting that home-base augmenting motives matter in the globalization of innovation production. By contrast, the internationalization of innovation does not seem to be purely market-driven since large economies are not the target of foreign innovative firms and international patenting is more related to international competitiveness of country-industry pairs than to the direction of trade flows.<p><p>While the previous chapter studies the globalization of innovation of a country with the rest of world, Chapter 4 aims at explaining who collaborates with whom in the international production of technology. In particular, the impact of technological distance between partner’s economies is investigated for a panel dataset covering international co-inventions between 29 countries in 21 industries between 1988 and 2005. The descriptive analysis highlights that the overall growth in internationalization of innovation is due to both the increase in the number of international innovative actors and the rise of the average intensity of collaboration. The empirical findings then suggest that the two main arguments related to technological distance – ‘similarity versus diversity’ – can be reconciled by taking an industry approach. Indeed, the estimation results show that the impact of technological distance is twofold on the intensity of collaborative innovation at industry level. On the one hand, the more similar the industry-specific knowledge of two countries (low technological distance within the industry), the more easily they collaborate by sharing common industrial knowledge. On the other hand, the more different their non-industry-specific knowledge (high technological distance outside the scope of the industry), the more they collaborate to gain access to broad and interdisciplinary expertise. It suggests that the relative absorptive capacity between partner’s economies and the search for novel and complementary knowledge are key drivers of the globalization of innovation. Moreover, the results confirm the moderating effect of non-technological distance factors (spatial proximity, ease of communication, institutional proximity, and overall economic ties) in cross-border innovative relationships. <p><p>The topic of Chapter 5 is the cost-benefit analysis of the creation of a new ‘globalized’ patent: the EU Patent (formerly known as Community Patent) which consists in a single patent covering the entire EU territory for both application procedure and legal enforcement after grant. The objective of this chapter is threefold: (i) simulate the budgetary consequences in terms of renewal fees’ income for the European and national patent offices; (ii) evaluate the implications for the business sector in terms of absolute and relative fees; (iii) assess the total economic impact for the most important actors of the European patent system. Based on an econometric model explaining the determinants of the maintenance rate of patents, the simulations suggest that – with a sound renewal fee structure – the EU patent could generate more income for nearly all patent offices than under the current status quo. It would, at the same time, substantially reduce the relative patenting costs for applicants. Finally, the loss of economic rents by patent attorneys, translators and lawyers, and the drop of controlling power by national patent offices elucidate further the persistence of a fragmented European patent system.<p> / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The past decade has witnessed a second academic revolution with the new role of contributing to economic growth and social development assigned to universities. A real phenomenon embedded in this new role is the right given to universities to file for a patent protection over publicly funded research and the possibility to retain financial returns from its license or selling. The aim of this thesis is to better understand this phenomenon and its relationship to scientific production.<p><p>Starting with the role patents pay in stimulating innovation, Chapter 2 assesses the cost of rewarding and enforcing exclusive patent rights in Europe and discusses implications for patenting at universities.<p><p>Chapter 3 aims to document patenting at universities in Belgium by applying the definition of university-invented patents. It challenges the ‘European Paradox’, the view that despite being good in producing science, European research institutions are not successful in transferring it to the real economy.<p><p>Chapters 4 and 5 investigate the relationship between patenting and scientific productivity. Chapter 4 questions the critique that patenting at universities may have a detrimental effect on scientific progress. Chapter 5 challenges the view that knowledge diversity increases group ability to innovate. It further enhances our understanding of how different ways of achieving diversity affect team inventive performance.<p> / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

1. The context: The European patent system has been affected by substantial changes over the past three decades, which have raised vigorous debates at different levels. The main objective of the present dissertation is to contribute to these debates through an exploratory analysis of different changes in patenting practices – in particular the way applications are drafted and filed to patent offices –, their drivers, association with the value of patents, and potential impact on the patent system. The coming essays are therefore empirical in their essence, but are inspired by economic motivations and concerns. Their originality is threefold: it resides in the novelty of the main questions discussed, the comprehensive database specifically built to address them, and the range of statistical methods used for this purpose. The main argument throughout these pages is that patenting practices have significantly evolved in the past decades and that these developments have affected the patent system and could compromise its ability to fulfil its economic purpose. The economic objective of patents is to encourage innovation and its diffusion through the public disclosure of the inventions made. But their exploitation in the knowledge economy has assumed so many different forms that inventors have supposedly developed new patenting and filing strategies to deal with these market conditions or reap the maximum benefits from their patents. The present thesis aims at better understanding the dimensions, determinants, and some potential consequences of these developing practices.<p><p>2. The evolution: Chapter 2 presents a detailed descriptive analysis of the evolution in the size of patent applications filed to the European Patent Office (EPO). In this chapter, we propose two measures of patent voluminosity and identify the main patterns in their evolution. Based on a dataset with about 2 million documents filed at the EPO, the results show that the average voluminosity of patent applications – measured in terms of the number of pages and claims contained in each document – has doubled over the past 25 years. Nevertheless, this evolution varies widely across countries, technologies and filing procedures chosen by the applicant. This increasing voluminosity of filings has a strong impact on the workload of the EPO, which justifies the need for regulatory and policy actions.<p><p>3. The drivers: The evolution in patent voluminosity observed in chapter 2 calls for a multivariate analysis of its determinants. Chapter 3 therefore proposes and tests 4 different hypotheses that may contribute to explaining the observed inflation in size: the influence of national laws and practices and their diffusion to other countries with the progressive globalization of patenting procedures, the complexification of research activities and inventions, the emergence of new sectors with less established norms and vocabularies, and the construction of patent portfolios. The econometric results first reveal that the four hypotheses are significantly associated with longer documents and are therefore empirically supported. It appears however that the first hypothesis – the diffusion of national drafting practices through international patenting procedures – is the strongest contributor of all, resulting in a progressive harmonization of drafting styles toward American standards, which are longer by nature. The portfolio construction hypothesis seems a less important driver but nevertheless highlights substantial changes in patenting practices. These results raise two questions: Do these evolving patenting practices indicate more valuable patents? Do they induce any embarrassment for the patent system?<p><p>4. Measuring patent value: If the former of these two questions is to be addressed, measures are needed to identify higher value patents. Chapter 4 therefore proposes a review of the state of the art on patent value indicators and analyses several issues in their measurement and interpretation. Five classes of indicators proposed in the literature may be obtained directly from patent databases: the number of countries in which each patent is enforced, the number of years during which each patent has been renewed, the grant decision taken, the number of citations received from subsequent patents, and whether it has been opposed by a third party before the EPO. Because the former two measures are closely connected (the geographical scope of protection and length of maintenance can hardly be observed independently), they have been subjected to closer scrutiny in the first section of chapter 4, which shows that these two dimensions have experienced opposite evolutions. A composite measure – the Scope-Year Index – reveals that the overall trend is oriented downwards, which may suggest a substantial decline in the average value of patents. The second section of chapter 4 returns to the five initial classes of measures and underlines their main patterns. It appears that most of them witness the well-known properties of patent value: a severe skewness and large country and technology variations. A closer look at their relationships, however, reveals a high degree of orthogonality between them and opposite trends in their evolution, suggesting that they actually capture different dimensions of a patent’s value and therefore do not always pinpoint the same patents as being the most valuable. This result strongly discourages the reliance on one of the available indicators only and opens some avenue for the creation of one potential composite index of value based upon the five indicators to maximize the chances of capturing all potentially valuable patents in a large database. The proposed index reflects the intensity of the signal provided by all 5 constituting indicators on the potential value of each patent. Its declining trend reflects a rarefaction of this signal on average, leading to different plausible interpretations.<p><p>5. The links with patent value: Based upon the six indicators of value proposed in chapter 4 (the five classical ones plus the composite), the question of the association between filing strategies and the value of patents may be analysed. This question is empirically addressed in chapter 5, which focuses on all EPO patents filed between 1990 and 1995. The first section presents a comprehensive review of the existing evidence on the determinants of patent value. The numerous contributions in the field differ widely along three dimensions (the indicator of value chosen as dependent variable, the sampling methodology, and the set of variables tested as determinants), which have translated into many ambiguities across the literature. Section 2 proposes measures to identify different dimensions of filing strategies, which are essentially twofold: they relate to the routes followed by patent filings toward the EPO (PCT, accelerated processing), and to their form (excess claims, share of claims lost in examination), and construction (by assembly or disassembly, divisional). These measures are then included into an econometric model based upon the framework provided by the literature. The proposed model, which integrates the set of filing strategy variables along with some of the classical determinants, is regressed on the six available indicators separately over the full sample. In addition, the sensitivity of the available results to the indicator and the sampling methodology is assessed through 18 geographic and 14 industrial clustered regressions and about 30 regressions over random samples for each indicator. The estimates are then compared across countries, industries and indicators. These results first reveal that filing strategies are indicative of more valuable patents and provide the most stable determinants of all. And third, the results do confirm some classical determinants in their positive association with patent value, but highlight a high degree of sensitivity of most of them to the indicator or the sample chosen for the analysis, requiring much care in generalizing such empirical results.<p><p>6. The links with patent length: Chapter 6 focuses on one particular dimension of patent value: the length of patents. To do so, the censored nature of the dependent variable (the time elapsed between the filing of a patent application and its ultimate fall into the public domain) dictates the recourse to a survival time model as proposed by Cox (1972). The analysis is original in three main respects. First of all, despite the fact that renewal data have been exploited for about two decades to obtain estimates of patent value (Pakes and Schankerman, 1984), this chapter provides – to the best of our knowledge – the first comprehensive analysis of the determinants of patent length. Second, whereas most of the empirical literature in the field focuses on granted patents and investigates their maintenance, the analysis reported here includes all patent applications. This comprehensive approach is dictated by the provisional rights provided by pending applications to their holders and by the legal uncertainty these represent for competitors. And third, the model integrates a wide set of explanatory variables, starting with the filing strategy variables proposed in chapter 5. The main results are threefold: first, they clearly show that patent rights have significantly increased in length over the past decades despite a small apparent decline in the average grant rate, but largely due to the expansion of the examination process. Second, they indicate that most filing strategies induce considerable delays in the examination process, possibly to the benefit of the patentee, but most certainly to the expense of legal uncertainty on the markets. And third, they confirm that more valuable patents (more cited or covering a larger geographical scope) take more time to process, and live longer, whereas more complex applications are associated with longer decision lags, but also with lower grant and renewal rates.<p><p>7. Conclusions: The potential economic consequences and some policy implications of the findings from the dissertation are discussed in chapter 7. The evolution of patenting practices analysed in these works has some direct consequences for the stakeholders of the patent system. For the EPO, they generate a considerable increase in workload, resulting in growing backlogs and processing lags. For innovative firms, this phenomenon translates into an undesired increase in legal uncertainty, for it complicates the assessment of the limits to each party’s rights and hence of the freedom to operate on a market, which is precisely what the so-called ‘patent trolls’ and ‘submariners’ may be looking for. Although empirical evidence is lacking, some fear that this may result in underinvestment in research, development or commercialization activities (e.g. Hall and Harhoff, 2004). In addition, legal uncertainty is synonymous with an increased risk of litigation, which may hamper the development of SMEs and reduce the level of entrepreneurship. Finally, for society, we are left with a contrasted picture, which is hard to interpret. The European patent system wishes to maintain high quality standards to reduce business uncertainty around granted patents, but it is overloaded with the volume of applications filed, resulting in growing backglogs which translate into legal uncertainty surrounding pending applications. The filing strategies that contribute to this situation might reflect a legitimate need for more time and flexibility in filing more valuable patents, but they could also easily turn into real abuses of the system, allowing some patentees to obtain and artificially maintain provisional rights conferred by pending applications on inventions that might not meet the patentability requirements. Distinguishing between these two cases goes beyond the scope of the present dissertation, but should they be found abusive, they should be fought for they consume resources and generate uncertainty. And if legitimate, then they should be understood and the system adapted accordingly (e.g. by adjusting fees to discourage some strategies, raising the inventive step, fine-tuning the statutory term in certain technologies, providing more legal tools for patent examiners to reject unpatentable applications, etc.) so as to better serve the need of inventors for legal protection in a more efficient way, and to adapt the patent system to the challenges it is or will be facing. / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished