Yes / We investigate the relationship between intellectual property rights (IPR) and innovation, for a panel of 48 countries between 1998-2011. Prior empirical studies mainly focus on strength of patent regulations largely ignoring the enforcement of such laws in practice. We employ a new index that accounts for the enforcement related component of the patent system and the Ginarte and Park (1997) index of patent regulatory strength. We thus include two crucial elements of a national patent system, the de jure position relating to book law and IPR regulations, and the de facto position relating to IPR enforcement. We consider nonlinearities between IPR and innovation, and we find that both nonlinearities and the enforcement aspect are significant in explaining the relationship between innovation and IPR systems.

This thesis will show how patents policies can help the commercialization of inventions in Europe. Our study is mainly based on statistical material contained in the European Patent Office’s (EPO) database of published granted patents. Our study covers 407 granted patents in the field of chemistry and handling & processing in a one period year starting on 2007-12-24 and ending on 2008-12-26.Given the scope of data analysis, we found a tendency to limit the patents post (after) grant to a few states in Europe, mainly to Germany (DE), France (FR), Great Britain (GB), Italy (IT), Spain (ES), The Netherlands (NL) and Sweden (SE). This limitation in time and designated states is an indication that the markets in these states are the most important ones in Europe concerning the fields of chemistry and handling & processing for the applicant of the patent (e.g. the proprietor). In more than 70% of the number of granted patents post grant in our empirical study DE, FR and GB are the designated states. But we also found that in several of the granted patents in our thesis, Austria (AT), Belgium (BE), Switzerland (CH) and Finland (FI) are designated post grant. The numbers of designated states, post grant, in the scope of our thesis are higher compared with earlier studies applying the same method. For example Markus Reitzig’s empirical study that was made in 2004 uses 813 granted European patents, where the designation of DE, FR and GB was more significant and only 4-5 states on average were designated. It is an indication that the European market has extended the last 10 years within the fields of our study. The uniqueness of our empirical study comes from the survey of each of the 407 granted patents when it was filed at the European Patent Office (EPO) and after grant and publishing (post grant), i.e. at the beginning of the life cycle of the patent. As far as we know no earlier studies did so. Concerning our sample of applications for a European patent, the rational is the following. When the application is filed at EPO are all possible states designated, but post grant of the patent only a few state remains. Concerning the selection of the field of patenting, our consideration of data singularises chemistry and handling & processing. Clearly in the field of chemistry we found a marked incremental tendency for the transfer of patents rights. The transfer itself may be an indicator of a change either of industrial process toward R&D or a strategy toward patent policies in this specific field. The thesis tries consequently to evaluate if the EU-patent system will ease the commercialization of inventions in chemistry and handling´& processing in Europe. Especially for SMEs the EU-patent should facilitate a quicker and cheaper process. A general opinion assumes that the European patent application is too expensive for small companies. The process of establishing EU-patent was initiated 30 years ago and it will last another 5 years before it is fully possible to filing. Obviously, legal and political matters are not completely solved but that is not the direct concern of this thesis.

The accumulated importance of the patent law morality exclusion over the recent decades has been prompted by the increased protection sought for biotechnological inventions. This raises specific ethical concerns such as the respect for human dignity. The morality exclusion is regarded as an indispensable safeguard in the patent system of the 21st century, but its application and scope remains unclear, not least due to a division of competence between the European Union (EU), the European Patent Organisation and national Member States. In addition, the international Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO) sets minimum standards for the operation of the morality exclusion. In this study the scope, interpretation and application of the morality exclusion in European and international patent law is described and analysed by applying the legal dogmatic method. The object of study is the European patent law morality exclusion in terms of Article 53(a) and Rule 28 of the European Patent Convention and Article 6 of Directive 98/44/EC on the legal protection of biotechnological inventions. A connected purpose of this study is to describe, problematize and analyse the compliance by the regional rules (EU, European Patent Organisation) with the international framework provided by Article 27.2 of the TRIPS Agreement. Although this study is not limited to specific technologies, the majority of issues raised are done so in relation to the morality exclusion concerning biotechnological inventions, which is reflected in this work. Furthermore, the theoretical framework is dependent on the functioning of the morality exclusion in the respective systems, both regional (EU, European Patent Organisation) and international (WTO). This approach necessitates a consideration of the characteristics of each legal system. This thesis uncovers the differences in the interpretation of the morality exclusion (both within as well as between the legal systems), which causes legal uncertainty in this particularly complex field where patent law and ethics interact. The effects of such variations on the scope and application of the morality exclusion are clarified and critically reviewed. According to the wording of the morality exclusion, the commercial exploitation of an invention with regard to morality or ordre public is a central prerequisite in the assessment of excluded subject matter. Consequently, the interpretation of this particular requirement is subject to critical review, since its implications are decisive for the scope of application of the morality exclusion. It is furthermore questioned whether the European morality exclusions are TRIPS-compliant, and the possible effects (and available remedies) of non-compliance for the EU legal order are analysed. This in turn involves issues of norm conflicts in international and EU law. The author presents a critical analysis, investigates the interaction between legal systems and suggests clarifications in order to attain the optimal functioning of the morality exclusion.

This report studied innovation activity in four areas of the solar photovoltaic balance-of-system (BOS) technologies (inverters, mounting equipment, monitoring systems, and site assessment) in the Japanese market. Through patent searches with specific keywords, this study found that innovation activity in these four technology areas increased and decreased responding to both supply-side and demand-side policies. This report also empirically studied effects of demand-pull policies on innovation activity in the BOS technology areas. The regression analysis of the patent data found that the demand-side policies such as residential subsidy programs employed by the Japanese government were a major factor which influenced innovation activities in these technology areas in the Japanese market. Finally, the regression analysis also found that the termination of the residential subsidy program by the government in 2006 had a negative effect on the innovation activity of the four BOS technologies. / text

No description available.

Limitations of patent protection in pharmaceutical industry with regards to the access to medicine problem The goal of this master thesis is for the reader to gain a general overview about the legislation in the area of European pharmaceutical patent law and also about medicines accessibility problems that come with the patent protection in this area. In the beginning we present relevant legal regulation with the focus on the TRIPS, as this international treaty is the source of patent protection exemption that is focal to this thesis. Later the paper addresses patentability requirements while the most of attention is given to specifics that are typical for pharmaceutical industry. This thesis further analyses two important concerns standing against each other. These being the protection of intellectual property rights where it identifies its origins and practical importance; and concern over right to health, which constitutes a legal reasoning for better accessibility efforts. In this thesis we identify lack of accessibility in various forms, which can present either as inaccessibility due to high prices or not even existent treatment, while both this problems might have more causes. These causes may and may not stem from the current patent system. That is why we further analyse current measures...

Patent på mänskliga embryonala stamceller är en etisk känslig fråga där åsikterna går vitt isär. Problematiken ligger i att när embryonala stamceller utvinns förstörs det aktuella embryot och till följd av detta aktualiseras frågan vilket skyddsvärde som ska tillmätas ett embryo. Frågan är svårbesvarad. I två olika rättsfall har EU-domstolen försökt att definiera begreppet "embryo", men en klar och tydlig definition har ännu inte fastställts. Embryonal stamcellsforskning är dyr och tidskrävande. De statliga resurserna räcker inte till och forskningen är därav i behov av externa finansiärer. För att få till exempel ett företag att investera i forskningen, krävs det i normalfallet att de får ett ekonomiskt utbyte för sin investe-ring. Grundtanken är att beviljandet av patent ska uppfylla detta krav, eftersom patent har en ekonomisk funktion. Genom att ha en ensamrätt till att exploatera och kommersialisera en pro-dukt på marknaden, kan det generera i en vinst som inte bara täcker de utgifter företaget fick vid investeringen, utan även ger ett överskott. 1 c § PL reglerar patent på embryonala stamceller och som tolkningen av paragrafen ser ut idag, går det inte att erhålla patent på uppfinningar med embryonala stamceller som en del av pro-cessen. Denna begränsning av möjligheterna till patentskydd har negativa effekter dels på mark-nadsutvecklingen och dels på FoU i allmänhet. En förändring av 1 c § PL är nödvändig både ur ett forskarperspektiv och ur ett marknadsperspektiv, eftersom de är beroende av varandra för att kunna nå framgång. Samhället är i behov av läkemedel och behandlingar som kan tas fram med hjälp av en bra effektiv forskning. Vid en tillåten patentering av mänskliga embryonala stamceller skulle fler storföretag bli intresserade av att investera i forskningen och med större resurser skulle forsk-ningen kunna utvidgas och utvecklingen skulle kunna ske i en snabbare takt.

Die Arbeit verfolgt zwei Ziele. Einerseits sollen bereits bestehende Bewertungskonzepte für betriebliche Patente im Hinblick auf ihre Eignung für unternehmensinterne und -externe Willensbildungs- und Willensdurchsetzungsprozesse beurteilt werden. Andererseits sollten diese Ansätze verfeinert und erweitert werden mitunter zur Operationalisierung für praktische Anwendungen. Für die Analyse der bestehenden Patentbewertungsmethoden wird zwischen den Ansätzen auf Basis gesetzlich geregelter Bewertungsanlässe und den in der internen Unternehmensrechnungslegung verwendeten Ansätzen differenziert. Um die Grenzen der traditionellen einkommensorientierten Bewertungsmodelle überwinden zu können, werden in der vorliegenden Untersuchung mit dem Realoptionsansatz und der SGPP-Methode zwei alternative Ansatzpunkte bzw. verfeinerte Methoden für die monetäre Patentbewertung zur Diskussion gestellt. / The dissertation analyses patent valuation methods with a special focus on the income approach. Two alternative valuation methods are presented with a real options approach and the SGPP-Method.

The existence of a patent foramen ovale (PFO) has been known about for nearly 2,000 years. The prevalence of a PFO has been shown to be 25-40% in the general population. Despite the fact that blood flowing through a PFO acts as a shunt, there has been little research looking at the effect a PFO has on physiology in otherwise healthy humans. In Chapter IV, the effect of a PFO on core temperature (Tcore) prior to, and during exercise, was investigated. The design of this experiment included appropriate controls for a thermoregulatory study (i.e. measuring at same time of day, appropriate hydration and food intake, etc.). Results from this study indicate that subjects with a PFO (PFO+) have a Tcore that is ~0.4°C higher at rest and during exercise than subjects without a PFO (PFO–). Additionally, this study showed that PFO– subjects do not increase Tcore to the same extent breathing cold air as they do breathing ambient air during a 10-minute exercise bout, whereas there was no difference in Tcore increase between these two conditions for PFO+ subjects. These findings suggest that the difference in Tcore between PFO+ and PFO– subjects is potentially due to differences in respiratory heat loss. The studies for Chapter V examined differences in thermoregulatory and ventilatory responses during hot water (40°C) and cold water (20°C) immersion. This study found that compared to PFO– subjects, PFO+ subjects 1) increase Tcore at the same rate during hot water immersion and 2) do not cool off as quickly during cold water immersion. Additionally, in subjects who reached a ventilatory threshold, PFO+ subjects had blunted ventilatory responses to increased Tcore compared to PFO– subjects. Finally, in Chapter VI it was shown that PFO+ subjects have blunted ventilatory responses during acute exposure to hyperoxic and normoxic hypercapnia. However, there were no differences in ventilatory responses between PFO+ and PFO– subjects during exposure to either isocapnic or poikilocapnic hypoxia. These findings suggest that PFO+ subjects have a blunted central chemoreflex. This dissertation contains previously, unpublished co-authored material.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Delaware, 2007. / Principal faculty advisor: William Latham, III, Dept. of Economics. Includes bibliographical references.