This paper investigates whether patent fee policies are a potential factor underlying the boom in patent applications observed in major patent offices. We provide the first panel-based evidence suggesting that fees affect the demand for patents in three major patent offices (EPO, USPTO and JPO), with a price elasticity of about -0.4 (similar to that of the residential demand for oil or water). The laxity of fee policies adopted by patent offices over the past 25 years therefore contributed, to a significant extent, to the rising propensity to patent observed since the mid-nineties. This is especially true at the European Patent Office, which has dramatically decreased its fees since the mid-1990s.
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Paper provided by C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers in its series CEPR Discussion Papers with number
7029.
Gaétan de Rassenfosse & Bruno van Pottelsberghe, 2008.
"On the price elasticity of demand for patents,"
Working Papers CEB
08-031.RS, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Centre Emile Bernheim (CEB).
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Find related papers by JEL classification: O30 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change - - - General O31 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives O34 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change - - - Intellectual Property Rights O38 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change - - - Government Policy
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References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Gaétan de Rassenfosse & Bruno van Pottelsberghe, 2008.
"A Policy Insight into the R&D-Patent Relationship,"
Working Papers CEB
08-008.RS, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Centre Emile Bernheim (CEB).
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