A quality index for patent systems
Prof. Dr. Bruno van Pottelsberghe, Université Libre de Bruxelles
his paper presents a quality index for patent systems. The index is composed of nine operational design components that help shape the transparency of patent systems and affect the extent to which they comply with patentability conditions. Seven factors are related to rules and regulations (e.g. grace period, opposition process and continuation-inparts), while two factors measure patent offices’ resource allocation (i.e. workload per examiner and incentives). The index is computed for 32 national patent systems, it displays a high heterogeneity across countries. Cross-sectional quantitative analyses suggest that the demand for patent rights -or the propensity to patent- is lower in patent systems with a higher quality index, controlling for research efforts, patent fees and the “strength” of enforcement mechanisms.
About the speaker
Bruno van Pottelsberghe is Dean of the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (SBS-EM), at Université Libre de Bruxelles. He is Full-Time Professor and as holder of the Solvay S.A. Chair of Innovation, he teaches courses on the economics and management of innovation and intellectual property. During his academic career, Bruno van Pottelsberghe has been visiting researcher or professor at Columbia Business school (NYC), Hitotsubashi University (Tokyo), MITI Research institute (Tokyo), Stellenbosch Business School, and Barcelona University. He is senior Fellow at the University of Sussex, School of economics and Business. For his research activities, he is affiliated to ECARES and CEB. His research interests focus on the effectiveness of science and technology policies, patent policies, regulations and innovation. He has so far supervised about 12 Ph.D. research fellows. He has co-authored numerous papers in scientific journals like Research Policy, Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Economic Surveys, and the European Journal of Law and Economics. Bruno van Pottelsberghe was Chief Economist of the European Patent Office (EPO) from 2005 to 2007, he is Advisor to the President and Rector of the ULB for technology transfer issues since 2004 and is Senior Research Fellow at Bruegel, a Brussels-based Think-Tank since 2007
Venue: Conference Room
Date: 08 November 2012
Time: 12:30 - 13:30 CET
