Patents
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- 13 Mar 2019
- Working Paper Summaries
The Consequences of Invention Secrecy: Evidence from the USPTO Patent Secrecy Program in World War II
Information plays a critical role in technological progress, yet many inventors opt for trade secrecy to protect their intellectual property. This paper studies the myriad repercussions of concealing new inventions through the lens of a systematic and sweeping invention secrecy policy implemented by the USPTO during World War II.
- 04 Sep 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Some Facts of High-Tech Patenting
This study details the growth of patenting in software, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and related technologies in the twenty-first century, and the continuing dominance of inventors in large US, Japanese, and Korean companies. Researchers still need to understand the impact of such trends on social welfare more generally.
- 11 Jun 2018
- Research & Ideas
Why South Korea's Samsung Built the Only Outdoor Skating Rink in Texas
New research by Lauren Cohen and Umit Gurun finds that when some companies are sued, they put their advertising dollars to work in unusual ways to influence local juries. Meet 'TiVo,' the championship steer. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 11 Dec 2017
- Working Paper Summaries
The Use and Misuse of Patent Data: Issues for Corporate Finance and Beyond
Corporate finance researchers who analyze patent data are at risk of making highly predictable errors. The problem arises from dramatic changes in the direction and location of technological innovation (and patenting practice) over recent decades. This paper explains the pitfalls and suggests practical steps for avoiding them.
- 28 Feb 2017
- Working Paper Summaries
Patent Trolls and Small-Business Employment
Patent trolls are organizations that own patents but do not make or use the patented technology directly, instead using their patent portfolios to target firms with patent-infringement claims. This paper provides evidence that state anti-troll laws have had a net positive effect for small firms in high-tech industries. There is no significant effect for larger or non-high-tech firms.
- 17 Jan 2017
- Working Paper Summaries
Foreign Competition and Domestic Innovation: Evidence from US Patents
US firms in industries exposed to greater change in import competition from China have suffered worse growth in patenting and R&D spending than firms in industries exposed to less change in Chinese competition.
- 28 Nov 2016
- Research & Ideas
Challenging the Belief that Liability Laws Kill Medical Device Innovation
Many policymakers believe liability laws need reforming so that medical device makers are free to innovate without threat of costly lawsuits. But new research by Hong Luo and Alberto Galasso suggests innovation is not thwarted—just rechanneled. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 18 Nov 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
Innovation Network
Despite recent advances that measure how the technological development processes in innovative fields link with each other, our understanding of how progress in one technological area links to prior advances in upstream technological fields has been limited. The authors’ analysis and mapping of 1.8 million U.S. patents and their citation properties shows that a stable innovation network acts as a conduit for a cumulative process of technological and scientific progress. Upstream technological developments play an important role in the future pace and direction of patenting in downstream fields. This finding implies that if R&D slackens in one period the effects will still be felt years later in downstream fields.
- 01 Nov 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
Patent Disclosures and Standard-Setting
Technological standards are a central component of the modern network economy. Standard setting organizations (SSOs) play a variety of roles. One of the most important is ensuring the disclosure of relevant intellectual property—in particular, potentially essential patents—prior to the key decisions about a proposed standard. This study finds that large downstream firms are more likely to make generic disclosures to SSOs. Higher quality patents are more likely to be disclosed via specific disclosures.
- 26 Sep 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
Technological Leadership (de)Concentration: Causes in ICTE
The market structure for the Information and Communications Technology equipment industry has undergone enormous changes in the last four decades. This paper characterizes long-term trends by analyzing the concentration in patents from 1976 to 2010 and comparing measured changes against popular assumptions about the size and scale of changes in innovation.
- 19 May 2016
- Research Event
Crowdsourcing, Patent Trolls, and Other Research Insights Highlighted at Harvard Business School Symposium
The 2016 Faculty Research Symposium looked at current and potential collaborations between HBS and Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 22 Jan 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
Financial Patent Quality: Finance Patents After State Street
Although the past few decades have seen a surge in patents of inventions related to financial services, concerns have been raised about the quality of those patents. New research shows that finance patents in aggregate cite fewer non-patent publications and especially fewer academic publications.
- 20 Jan 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
The Bright Side of Patents
We examine whether patents help startups grow and succeed using detailed micro data on all patent applications filed by startups at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office since 2001 and approved or rejected before 2014. We find that patent approvals help startups create jobs, grow their sales, innovate, and reward their investors.
- 01 Aug 2011
- Research & Ideas
Immigrant Innovators: Job Stealers or Job Creators?
The H-1B visa program, which enables US employers to hire highly skilled foreign workers for three years, is "a lightning rod for a very heated debate," says Harvard Business School professor William Kerr. His latest research addresses the question of whether the program is good for innovation, and whether it impacts jobs for Americans. Key concepts include: An uptick in the number of H-1B visas given to Indian and Chinese engineers correlates with an increase in the number of US patents. The H-1B program seems to have no overall effect on the number of jobs held by American-born scientists and engineers, nor does it affect the number of patents from inventors who have Anglo-Saxon names. Closed for comment; 37 Comment(s) posted.
Migrant Inventors and the Technological Advantage of Nations
This study provides robust econometric evidence for how immigrant inventors shape the innovation dynamics of their receiving countries. Countries receiving inventors from other nations that specialize in patenting particular technologies are more likely to have a significant increase in patent applications of the same technology.