Eskil Ullberg – författare

The economic system is generally understood to operate on the premise of exchange. The most important factor in economic development has always been technology, as a way to expand a limited resource base. Such increase in technology and knowledge is generally accepted by economists, but the mechanisms of exchange through which this happens are much less studied.  Generally, a static analysis of product exchange, incorporating new technology, has been undertaken.

This book explores the transition of trade in ideas from an exchange largely within firms and nations to an exchange between firms and nations. This process has been going on since the beginning of the patent system, where importing (trading) technology was made policy in 1474, more than 500 years ago. However, during the past 25-30 years, a growth in exchange of technology between specialized firms, cooperating based on patent licensing, has been phenomenal, with annual licensing transactions exceeding a trillion dollars, not counting value of cross-licensing. Such specialized exchange has been seen in history but not at this scale and level of coordination.

Using principles of experimental economics, the author investigates the licensing contract and mechanisms of exchange (rules of trade) as this exchange moves towards organized markets with prices. A key issue concerns the effect of introducing demand side bidding, through which the patent system introduces specialization and multiple use of the same technology in different new products, thus expanding the use of technology a firm has to more actors, products, and consumers. The risk and uncertainty in market access for cheaper, better and unique products and services are reduced through new and competitive technology.

Questions raised are related to the“optimal” integration of information and rules in dynamic exchange of patents through institutions.  The view presented shows how inventors and traders can sell their intellectual property to buyers in a producer market, in this case in licensing contracts on patents, to diversify risk and monetize value based on an experimental economic study where the performance and behavioral properties of these institutions is the object of investigation. More fundamentally the work illustrates the theoretical, design, and patent system policy issues in a transition from personal to impersonal trade in ideas.

This book explores the transition of trade in ideas from an exchange largely within firms and nations to an exchange between firms and nations. This process has been going on since the beginning of the patent system, where importing (trading) technology was made policy in 1474, more than 500 years ago. However, during the past 25-30 years, a growth in exchange of technology between specialized firms, cooperating based on patent licensing, has been phenomenal, with annual licensing transactions exceeding a trillion dollars, not counting value of cross-licensing. Such specialized exchange has been seen in history but not at this scale and level of coordination.

Using principles of experimental economics, the author investigates the licensing contract and mechanisms of exchange (rules of trade) as this exchange moves towards organized markets with prices. A key issue concerns the effect of introducing demand side bidding, through which the patent system introduces specialization and multiple use of the same technology in different new products, thus expanding the use of technology a firm has to more actors, products, and consumers. The risk and uncertainty in market access for cheaper, better and unique products and services are reducedthrough new and competitive technology.

Questions raised are related to the “optimal” integration of information and rules in dynamic exchange of patents through institutions.  The view presented shows how inventors and traders can sell their intellectual property to buyers in a producer market, in this case in licensing contracts on patents, to diversify risk and monetize value based on an experimental economic study where the performance and behavioral properties of these institutions is the object of investigation. More fundamentally the work illustrates the theoretical, design, and patent system policy issues in a transition from personal to impersonal trade in ideas.

This book examines the role of intangible assets (IA) in companies and countries for achieving sustainable economic growth. The authors particularly focus on Sweden and other Nordic countries to analyse the IA gap using a systematized “IA metrics” approach. They also discuss the incentives needed for strategic investments into useful IA to gain national competitiveness from an economic, social and environmental policy perspective.

The authors contend that despite the increasing importance of IA and intellectual capital (IC) in the economy, the current discussion has only been centered on intellectual property, which is one of the more prominent forms of intangibles. As this book demonstrates, IC and IA encompass wider dimensions of human, process, market, and renewal capital, among others. Featuring real case examples from Spotify, Minecraft and Izettle, this book offers a strategy for the resurrection of competitive advantage in the globalized economy and the advancement of some key United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Patents and other intellectual property (IP) rights are increasingly part of cross-border trade in their own rights. Patent transfers and patent licensing between inventors, investors and innovators create new business strategies of cooperation in the creation of new technology – increasing the productivity in the stock of technology assets – and efficient “distribution” of these rights. The rights bundles are then used – also increasingly – in products and services being traded cross-border, furthering economic efficiency created by this cooperative strategy. Today’s international trade statistics, however, lack statistics explicitly on trade flows from ideas, based on IP rights.  This book offers an idea based statistical framework to measure IP, (i.e., increasingly depends on trade in ideas) and explores ways to introduce the framework into international standards. Specifically, it offers a theory of value to measure the flows from IP and an asset view of IP to deal with allocation of resources and who owns these rights. This is then contrasted with the current way IP is treated and a “gap analysis” is used to identify what needs to change in the standards. This new framework can help develop theories, policies, practices and inform the decisions needed to better leverage the human capital formation of inventors everywhere.

Praise for Intellectual Property Statistics…

 “In this book, Prof. Ullberg has undertaken a Herculean task – to lay out a paradigm for the collection of IP Statistics to ensure that the … market of trade in ideas has the information and data necessary to function well.

[the] volume should be viewed as a starting point, a work in progress, but an important one that could very well influence the development of this important set of data on trade in ideas.

At a time when global issues … require both new ideas and the spread of those ideas widely to help ensureboth economic growth and continued global economic convergence data that helps us monitor and evaluate what is happening in trade in ideas will be extremely valuable.”

–       Robert Koopman, American University, Washington, DC, USA and

Former Chief Economist, World Trade Organization, Geneva, Switzerland

 The first workshop was held at George Mason University (GMU) in Arlington, VA, USA in March 2013 and a second, building on the key results from the first, was held at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden in October 2013. A variety of problems were discussed and several interdisciplinary concepts in internationalization and competitiveness have already emerged from these workshops. For example, many of the presentations emphasized a need for productivity, which is a key goal of economic development. It was proposed to shift the emphasis from productivity towards creativity by examining property right regimes and their measurement to provide incentives for creative idea generation. These regimes span across higher education, invention, labor markets, and many other markets and institutions.

 Addressing fundamental issues along four dimensions--economics, higher education, strategic collaboration, and new research methods--this book provides a multidimensional, interdisciplinary perspective on the challenges and opportunities for future development.​

 This excellent collection of essays provides new insights as to how the development and diffusion of knowledge are facilitating convergence in the structure of research organizations across the globe -- a process that has enormous implications forhow actors in all parts of the world compete with one another in an increasing array of arenas.  

The essays have valuable implications for understanding how producers of all kinds of knowledge across the globe are competing with one another and how geographical space and nation states are less important in the competition for novelty.

Rogers Hollingsworth

University of Wisconsin (Madison)University of California San Diego