Did patents of introduction encourage technology transfer? Long-term evidence from the Spanish innovation system

Cliometrica - Tập 8 - Trang 49-78 - 2013
Patricio Sáiz1
1Departamento de Análisis Económico: Teoría Económica e Historia Económica, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Tóm tắt

In this article, we reflect on how patents of introduction or importation, which compose an institutional policy related to weak IPR systems, could influence long-term international technology transfer. Both theoretically and empirically, the consequences of strengthening IPRs in lagging economies for technology transfer and innovation remain unclear. Although the mainstream literature tends to link stronger patent enforcement with better invention and innovation markets now and in the past, new theoretical and historical evidence supports extreme complexity in the relationship between IPR extension and scope and technological diffusion. For the first time, in this study, we analyze a large series of patents of introduction, which were a common feature of the early stages of almost all patent systems designed to favor technology transfer and innovation above original inventor property rights. Though typically used by pioneers, followers, and latecomers, we know little of how they functioned and their consequences. In this study, we analyze the use of patents of introduction throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Spain, which was a lagging country on the European periphery. The results demonstrate that this institutional policy could facilitate technology transfer, innovation, and advancement at earlier stages of industrialization. As additional research has demonstrated, such evidence may have serious implications for IPR treatment in both developing and underdeveloped economies.

Tài liệu tham khảo

Arora A (1995) Licensing tacit knowledge: intellectual property rights and the market for know-how. Econ Innov New Technol 4:41–59 Beatty E, Sáiz P (2007) Propiedad industrial, patentes e inversión en tecnología en España y México (1820–1914). In: Dobado R, Gómez A, Márquez G (Comp.) México y España ¿historias económicas paralelas? México, Fondo de Cultura Económica, pp 425–467 Bessen J, Maskin E (2009) Sequential innovation, patents, and imitation. Rand J Econ 40(4):611–635 Boldrin M, Levine DK (2008) Against intellectual monopoly. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Boldrin M, Levine DK (2009) Market size and intellectual property protection. Int Econ Rev 50(3):855–881 Branstetter L, Fisman R, Foley C (2006) Do stronger intellectual property rights increase international technology transfer? Empirical evidence from US firm-level panel data. Quart J Econ 121(1):321–349 Chin JC, Grossman G (1990) Intellectual property rights and North-South trade. In: Jones RW, Kreuger AO (eds) The political economy of North-South trade: essays in honor of Robert E. Baldwin. Basil Blackwell, Cambridge, pp 90–107 Diebolt C, Pellier K (2011) Measuring the ‘ideas’: evidence from a new international patent database. Association Française de Cliométrie, Working Paper Series, n. 4 Epstein SR (2004) Property rights to technical knowledge in pre-modern Europe, 1300–1800. Am Econ Rev Pap Proc 94(2):382–387 Freeman C (1987) Technology and economic performance: lessons from Japan. Pinter Publishers, London Gilbert R, Shapiro C (1990) Optimal patent length and breadth. Rand J Econ 21:106–112 Goodfriend M, McDermott J (1998) Industrial development and the convergence question. Am Econ Rev 88(5):1277–1289 Griliches Z (1990) Patent statistics as economic indicators. J Econ Lit 28:1661–1707 Grossman G, Lai E (2004) International protection of intellectual property. Am Econ Rev 94(5):1635–1653 Helpman E (1993) Innovation, imitation, and intellectual property rights. Econometrica 61:1247–1280 Hilaire-Perez L (1991) Invention and the state in 18th-century France. Technol Cult 32(4):911–931 Kaplan F (1988) Dickens, a biography. William Morrow, New York Kelly M (2009) Technological progress under learning by imitating. Int Econ Rev 50(2):397–414 Khan Z (2005) The democratization of invention: patents and copyrights in American economic development. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (N.Y.) Khan Z (2012) Selling ideas: an international perspective on patenting and markets for technological innovations, 1790–1930. Unpublished paper Khan Z, Sokoloff KL (1998) Patent institutions, industrial organization and early technological change: Britain and the United States, 1790–1850. In: Berg M, Bruland K (eds) Technological revolutions in Europe: historical perspectives. Edward Elgar, Northampton, pp 292–313 Khan Z, Sokoloff K (2004) Institutions and democratic invention in 19th century America. Am Econ Rev 94:395–401 Khan Z, Sokoloff KL (2008) Historical perspectives on patent systems in economic development. In: Netanel NW (ed) The development agenda: global intellectual property and developing countries. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 215–245 Lamoreaux N, Sokoloff K (2001) Market trade in patents and the rise of a class of specialized inventors in the 19th-century United States. Am Econ Rev 91(2):39–44 Lee JY, Mansfield E (1996) Intellectual property protection and US foreign direct investment. Rev Econ Stat 78(2):181–186 Lerner J (2000) 150 Years of patent protection. NBER Working Paper Series, 7478 Lerner J (2002) Patent protection and innovation over 150 years. NBER Working Paper Series, 8977 Lerner J (2005) 150 Years of patent office practice. Am Law Econ Rev 7(1):112–143 Loscertales J (2002) Deutsche investitionen in Spanien 1870–1920. Franz Steiner, Stuttgart Lubar S (1991) The transformation of antebellum patent law. Technol Cult 32(4):932–959 Lundvall BÅ (1988) Innovation as an interactive process: from user-producer interaction to the national system of innovation. In: Dosi G, Freeman C, Nelson y RR, Silverger G (eds) Technical change and economic theory. Pinter Publishers, London, pp 349–369 Macleod Ch (1988) Inventing the industrial revolution. The English patent system, 1660–1800. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Moser P (2005) How do patent laws influence innovation? Evidence from nineteenth-century world’s fair. Am Econ Rev 95(4):1214–1236 Nagoaka S (2009) Does strong patent protection facilitate international technology transfer? Some evidence from licensing contracts of Japanese firms. J Technol Transf 34:128–144 Nicholas T (2010) The role of independent invention in U.S. technological development, 1880–1930. J Econ Hist 70(1):57–82 Nicholas T (2011) Independent invention during the rise of the corporate economy in Britain and Japan. Econ Hist Rev 64(3):995–1023 Penrose E (1951) The economics of the international patent system. Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore Penrose E (1973) International patenting and the less-developed countries. Econ J 83(331):768–786 Plasseraud Y, Savignon F (1986) L’Etat et l’invention: histoire des brevets. Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle, Paris Puig N, Loscertales J (2001) Las estrategias de crecimiento de la industria química alemana en España: Exportación e inversión directa, 1880–1936. Revista de Historia Económica 19(2):345–382 Richter R, Streb J (2011) Catching-up and falling behind: knowledge spillover from American to German machine toolmakers. J Econ Hist 71(4):1006–1031 Sáiz P (1999) Invención, patentes e innovación en la España contemporánea. OEPM, Madrid Sáiz P (2002) The Spanish patent system (1770–1907). Hist Technol 24:45–79 Schmookler J (1966) Invention and economic growth. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.) Smith PJ (2001) How do foreign patent rights affect US exports, affiliate sales, and licenses? J Int Econ 55:411–439 Tortella T (2000) A guide to sources of information on foreign investment in Spain, 1780–1914. International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam Waterson M (1990) The economics of product patents. Am Econ Rev 80:860–869 Yang G, Maskus KE (2001) Intellectual property rights, licensing, and innovation in an endogenous product-cycle model. J Int Econ 53:169–187