Software patenting is an increasingly important phenomenon in the European Union. Using a novel database of more than 30,000 software patents granted to both European and Non-European companies, we investigate the relevant factors explaining firm-level software patenting at the European Patent Office. We find that software patents are mainly applied for by American and Japanese firms, that they are characterised by a higher than average length of the granting procedure and that firms belonging to the software sector generally do not apply for them. Finally, results from non-linear panel data estimation reveal that patents are not deemed as useful appropriability instruments by software firms and that a " threat effect" by hardware firms is growing in importance. This last result is in line with recent developments in the literature relative to strategic patenting.
Sources and characteristics of software patents in the European Union : Some empirical considerations / F. Rentocchini. - In: INFORMATION ECONOMICS AND POLICY. - ISSN 0167-6245. - 23:1(2011 Mar), pp. 141-157. [10.1016/j.infoecopol.2010.12.002]
Sources and characteristics of software patents in the European Union : Some empirical considerations
F. Rentocchini
2011
Abstract
Software patenting is an increasingly important phenomenon in the European Union. Using a novel database of more than 30,000 software patents granted to both European and Non-European companies, we investigate the relevant factors explaining firm-level software patenting at the European Patent Office. We find that software patents are mainly applied for by American and Japanese firms, that they are characterised by a higher than average length of the granting procedure and that firms belonging to the software sector generally do not apply for them. Finally, results from non-linear panel data estimation reveal that patents are not deemed as useful appropriability instruments by software firms and that a " threat effect" by hardware firms is growing in importance. This last result is in line with recent developments in the literature relative to strategic patenting.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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