350 likes | 477 Views
Academic patenting in Europe: recent research and new perspectives Francesco Lissoni DIMI-Univ ersity of Brescia & KITES-Bocconi University, Milan APE-INV/ TTFactor_IFOM -IEO/EPI workshop “ Intellectual Property and Fundamental Research” at Bocconi University, Milan – June 9, 2011.
E N D
Academic patenting in Europe: recent research and new perspectives Francesco Lissoni DIMI-Universityof Brescia & KITES-Bocconi University, Milan APE-INV/TTFactor_IFOM-IEO/EPI workshop “Intellectual Property and Fundamental Research” at Bocconi University, Milan – June 9, 2011
Outline • Whatisacademicpatenting? Why are weinterested? • AcademicPatenting in Europe 1: A methodologicalnovelty • AcademicPatenting in Europe 2: Key findings (quantityand ownership) • AcademicPatenting in Europe 3: Who are the academicinventors? • Questionsfor future research
Whatisacademicpatenting? • Academic patent = Patent signed by (at least one) academic scientist • University may/may not own the patent: - business companies - public research organizations & funding agencies likely owners - individual scientists • Key indicator for: - technology transfer activity - university-industry ties (collaboration, consultancy) - academic entrepreneurship - markets for technologies
Whatisacademicpatenting? (cont.) University-invented vs. university-owned… …it reflects institutional peculiarities of European countries: - professor’s privilege (Germany, Austria, Scandinavia…) - universities’ lack of managerial autonomy / expertise - high status (lack of control) of academic profession … it has been the key for a recent & successful research programme Verspagen B. (2006), “University Research, Intellectual Property Rights and European Innovation Systems”, J. of Econ. Surveys 20/4: 607-632 Lissoni F., P.Llerena, M.McKelvey, B.Sanditov (2008), “Academic Patenting in Europe: New Evidence from the KEINS Database”, Research Evaluation 16: 87-102
APE1: Methodologicalnovelty • TWO-STEP procedure: • 1. Reclassification of patents by inventor • 2. Name+matchingbetweeninventors and academicscientists • Key issue: standardizationofnames & qualitycheck • RaffoJ., Lhuillery S. (2009), “How to play the “Names Game”: Patent retrieval comparing different heuristics”, Research Policy 38(10), pp. 1617‐1627 • NAME GAME WORKSHOP (2009): http://www.esf-ape-inv.eu/index.php?page=10#Paris 2009 • Additional STEP: • 3. Survey work (homonimity & employmentcheck; ad hoc questions) Collectmatchedprofessors-inventors’ emails • Submitmatchedpatents and ask: 1. Confirmationofinventorship 2. Confirmationofacademic status at the timeofinvention
APE2: Key findings (quantity & ownership) 1. Scientists in Europeanuniversities produce manypatents… … Relative toalldomesticpatents … Especially in science-basedtechnologies 2. Mostacademicpatents in Europe are ownedbycompanies 3. Relative importanceofotherowners (universities, PROs, individuals..) dependsupon: - roleofPROs vs universities in the national science system - existence/abolitionof the professor’s privilege - degreeofautonomyofuniversities - technology (more university-ownership in life sciences)
Academic inventors in Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK; nr. and % over nr. of professors , 2005 (2008) 1 Data from checked professor-inventor matches (professors confirmed to be the inventors) 2 All positively checked and unchecked records (records for which professors denied being the inventors are excluded)
Share of Academic patents on the country total in 5 European countries, 1995-2001; by techn. and country
Policiespushinguniversityto OWN more patents • Abolitionof the professor’s priviledge in Denmark: “swap” ofindividual- vs university-ownedpatents • Bayh-Dole-Act-Likelegislation InnovationAct in France: increaseuniversity-companyco-ownership Lissoni F., P.Lotz, J. Schovsbo, A. Treccani (2009) “Academic Patenting and the Professor’s Privilege: Evidence on Denmark from the KEINS database”, Science and Public Policy 36/8: 595-607 • Della Malva A., Lissoni F., Llerena P. (2010) “Institutional Change and Academic Patenting: French Universities and the Innovation Act of 1999”, KITES Working Paper 29, Univ. Bocconi, Milano
Pause forthought: wheredo we go fromhere? • Economicsof science & tech. transfer: • who are the academicinventors (incentives, careers…)? • howgood (or bad) ispatentingfor science? • EconomicsofIPRs: • howvaluable are academicpatents? • fortheirapplicants • fortheirlicensees (howmany)? • for society at large (quality, nr …)
APE 3: Who are academicinventors? 1. Academicinventors’ standing in the scientific community: - Are theymarginal or prominentscientists? - Istheir inventive activitycomplementary, alternative, or unrelatedtotheirscientificresearch? academicinventorsasscientists 2. How do theyrelatetootherinventorsoutside the academy, and tootherscientistswithinit? academics in the network ofinventors
APE 3.1: Academicinventors’ standing in the scientific community • Academic inventors are highly productive scientists (fixed effect) • Scientific production is a good predictor of patenting activity (it is scientific results that get patented) • Patenting activity feeds back positively on scientific production (BUT endogeneity problems) • Gender bias
Mean publication rates per year, academic inventors vs controls; 1975-2003 (Italy) * Dark (light) grey areas: inventor-control distribution difference 95 (.90) significant; Kolmogorov-Smirnov test ** Obs. range from 148 in 1975 to 299 in 2000 (284 in 2003) source: elaborations on EP-INV-DOC database and ISI Science Citation Index
APE 3.2: Academics in the network ofinventors: highlyproductive, mobile, and central • Academicinventors are “mobile”, aka “multi-applicant” inventors • Academicinventorsholdhigher-than-averagecentralpositionsin networksofinventors • Centralacademicinventorsactas“brokers” and “gatekeepers” betweenotheracademics and industrial researchers • centralinventors are top scientists / senior figures • manyties (esp. with industrial researchers are maintainednotforscientificcollaboration, but info exchanges) Key figuresforknowledgediffusion? Research on APE blendswithresearch on inventors’ mobility and knowledgespillovers [sameneedofpatent data at inventors’ level]
Position of academic inventors in the main component (France) BCENT= Avgbetweenness centrality of inventors considered CCENT= Avg closeness centrality of inventors considered DCENT= Avg degree centrality of inventors considered
APE 3.1: The valuesofacademicpatents Evidence from patent citations: • ‘Importance’, ‘Basicness’ and ‘Generality’ of US university-owned patents Mixed evidence for Europe: Bacchiocchi& Montobbio (2009): no citation premium for university-owned patents Czarnitzky et al (2008); citation premium to academic patents in Germany Lissoni, Montobbio, Seri (2010): ownership matters!
Ownership and citation pattern of academic patents (Lissoni, Montobbio, Seri, 2010) Data: • 115,185 patents from Denmark, France, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden (years: 1995-2001), of which: 5,019 academic patents (3,418: Company-owned) • 184,566 forward citations and 293,254 backward citations from (and to) EPO patents from 1978 to 2001 (source: Patstat). We control for self-citations
Methodology • Survival analysis: event is the citation, duration is the citation lag: n. of days between the citing and cited priority date • OLS, Poisson, Zero Inflated Poisson, Negative Binomial on the number of four-year forward citations give very similar results Explanatory variables • Academic patent dummy or Academic*Ownership dummy (Company, University, Individual, or Government ownrship) • Countries and technologies (dummies) • Control variables: Co-patenting, Int’l Co-patenting, Foreign co-inventorship, Nr of Claims
Econometric results: estimated coefficients n= 200143; robust standard errors
Academic patents owned by universities have lower impact than company-owned in a number of countries • Does this result legitimate the ‘company-owned’ model? • Or is it just the result of cherry-picking by companies? • Do recent policies, that push universities to take more patents, make any sense?
Back to data: What do weneedto go further? • EconomicsofIPRs: • howvaluable are academicpatents? • Bettereconometrics • More measures (surveys)… • claims, divisionals… Economics of science & tech. transfer: what is the origin of academic patents (type of funding / research)? more research on networks and mobility: affiliations and careers
A big project on inventors: ESF-APE-INV, 2009-2013 1) creation of a European database on inventors studies on mobility/networks 2) identification of “academic inventors” (university staff who are inventors) studies on technology transfer and networks • 2 workshops per year • Access to data for all those who contribute • Short/Long mobility grants • Partners (by now): KITES-Bocconi, ULB, KU Leuven, EPFL, Goteborg Univ., Beta-Strasbourg, Ludwig-Maximilian Univ., CBS, CSIC and many others... Basically everybody is welcome!!! Visit: www.academicpatenting.eu