New Horizons in Intellectual Property series – serie

Following the transition of industrial nations to knowledge economies, the financing of technological innovation has become a central issue in public policy, corporate finance and business management. This detailed book examines the role of intellectual property rights in facilitating the financing of technological innovation as well as the role of policy makers, investors and managers in this process. The book's central finding is that public policy plays a key role in promoting the corporate disclosure of intellectual property-related information to enhance the efficiency of capital markets. This not only reduces the costs of capital for technology-driven firms but ultimately spurs innovation and economic growth.Intellectual Property Rights and the Financing of Technological Innovation will strongly appeal to research students and academics, policy makers, intellectual property professionals, equity analysts, credit rating analysts and executives in the pharmaceutical industry.Contents: 1. Introduction 2. The Intangible Economy 3. Patent Information and Corporate Credit Ratings: An Empirical Study of Patent Valuation by Credit Rating Agencies 4. IPR Management and Company Valuation in the Pharmaceutical Industry: An Exploratory Study 5. IPR Management, Corporate Disclosures, and Stock Market Valuations in the Pharmaceutical Industry 6. Towards Forward-looking Financial Reporting Bibliography Index

This book investigates the realm of intellectual property rights (IPRs) within the context of international political economy. In particular, it examines the extent to which powerful interest groups, such as pharmaceutical multinational companies, influence the political dynamism underlying the field of IPRs. Meir Perez Pugatch argues that a pure economic approach does not provide a sufficient or satisfactory explanation for the creation of intellectual property rights, most notably patents. The author instead suggests that a dynamic approach, based on the international political economy of interest groups and systemic outcomes, provides a better starting point for explaining how the international intellectual property agenda is determined. The book explores the manner in which the R&D-based pharmaceutical industry in Europe organised and operated between 1995 and 1999 in order to secure its interests with regard to the agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPs) of the World Trade Organisation.The International Political Economy of Intellectual Property Rights will be warmly welcomed by scholars, practitioners, and government officials interested in the fields of international trade and intellectual property policy, intellectual property law and international business. The potential readership is as likely to come from developed as from developing countries. The latter may find the process of IP policy making of particular interest and relevance given current international IP developments.

This book brings together innovative contributions on the management of intellectual property (IP) and intellectual property rights by an esteemed and multi-disciplinary group of economists, management scientists, accountants and lawyers. Offering a broad and enlightening picture of the measurement and management of IP, the contributors argue that the shift towards a knowledge-based economy has increased the importance of IP and more generally, intangible assets, as a focus for company decision-making behaviour. The book explores these intangible assets, which are driven by investments in R&D, marketing, education and training, management information systems and organizational structure. The inherent risk in the development of such assets - born from the involvement of creativity and innovation - is also discussed.The Management of Intellectual Property should prove of use to both students of management and managers in the field who have to make decisions with regard to investments in, and the protection of, IP and other intangible assets.

There has been continued debate in Europe over whether to change the patentability of software - or so-called computer-implemented inventions - and to follow the US model of allowing software patents.The European debate has shown a severe lack of empirical analysis on the possible impact of software patenting that goes beyond interest-driven rhetoric. This book seeks to address this shortcoming by taking a two-fold approach. Firstly, a survey of German software companies provides a representative overview of both general strategies to protect inventions and opinions regarding the future IPR regime in the context of innovation strategies - including the importance and use of Open Source software. Secondly, a series of case studies illustrate the varying impacts that patents and other protection strategies can have in specific contexts. This book provides both a theoretical overview of the economic impacts and policy implications of software patents, and an empirical foundation upon which to base a discussion on how to shape the intellectual property regime for software. Thus, this volume will be of interest to industrial economists and students, as well as legal scientists and analysts and students of governance in innovation systems. It will also appeal to all policy stakeholders dealing with IPR issues and/or software developing industries.

An Economic Perspective on Trade Mark Law uses economic analysis to examine the capacity of a trade mark to stimulate and strengthen demand for marked products and the trade mark's role in marketing and business organization. It uses this perspective to evaluate the exclusive rights that trade mark owners enjoy and other issues in trade mark law. It will argue that the trade mark has enabled marketing to develop as a distinct form of economic activity and that the trade mark's flexibility as a structuring device has had a major impact on the evolution of the firm and on the organization of streams of economic activity.This invaluable book will appeal to academics, postgraduate and undergraduate students in the fields of trade mark law, business organization, intellectual property and law and economics. Solicitors and other professionals specializing in trade mark law and/or marketing will also find much to interest them in this insightful book.Contents: 1. Trade Marks in Modern Commercial Life; 2. The Legal Nature of a Trade Mark as a Marketing Resource and a Structuring Device; 3. The Marketing Power of Trade Marks; 4. Trade Marks and the Organization of Economic Activity; 5. An Economic Perspective on Trade Mark Law; 6. Concluding Thoughts; Index

China's accession to the WTO and TRIPS heralded massive changes in Chinese intellectual property (IP) law. This book asks whether all aspects of Chinese law and practice are now TRIPs compliant. The study offers both Chinese and European perspectives.Examining substantive IP law in detail, the contributors conclude that the changes have been far reaching and TRIPS compliance has been achieved. They also argue that China's IP laws are now addressing the new challenges of the digital revolution and the global economy. Of equal importance is enforcement, and in this respect the book reveals that change started later and that further work remains to be done. The book highlights the important efforts that are underway and the undeniable progress that is being made. All these issues are placed in an international context, where the development agenda is becoming more important and where the discussion on the renegotiation of the TRIPS has started.The contributors include leading members of the Chinese judiciary, as well as academics, politicians and practitioners from China, Europe and Canada. The approach taken to the subject combines academic rigorousness with political realism and the practical needs of operating an effective law enforcement and judicial system in a vast and rapidly developing country.This book will be warmly welcomed by IP academics and researchers, policy makers, R&D departments around the world and investors in China.

The inclusion of software and algorithms in the scope of patents by the US Patent and Trademark Office has propelled an ongoing debate on the contribution of patents to innovation and economic growth. This book examines the effects of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), namely patents and copyrights, on innovation and technical change in information technologies. It provides new insights on the links between markets, technologies and legislation by applying a variety of empirical and analytical methods. The book also explores the success of the Open Source movement to establish an alternative regime for IPRs by illuminating the rationale behind it and illustrating how Open Source can strategically be used by firms.Initially the book analyzes the role of IPRs by building upon the literature on the economics of innovation and technical change and on insights from evolutionary economics - in particular, the role of knowledge in the economy. It then goes on to analyze the evolution of IPR regimes and IPR policies with regards to IT and software technologies and products and elaborates their impact on innovation. Finally, a series of empirical and analytical models are provided to elaborate the balance between monopoly rights (by patent and copyrights) and knowledge disclosure as an input for innovation and technological development. Elad Harison's book will appeal to researchers and academics of law and economics, policymakers such as the European Commission, Patent offices, EPO, OECD, as well as directors and strategic managers in large software companies.

Following decades in which China’s approach to technology has been to imitate, the country is now transforming itself to become innovation-oriented. This pioneering study examines whether patents play a similar role in promoting innovation in China as they do in the West, exploring the interplay between patents and China’s biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries in particular. The author argues for a stronger patent regime based on an extensive review of the technological capacity, R&D models, patent filings and litigations, and issues in patent law, which involve China’s biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. By comparing China with other developing countries and analyzing China’s uniqueness in terms of its development stage, technological capacity and the strengths and weaknesses in its patent system, Yahong Li concludes that China is distinguished from the prevailing view that patents play a limited role in innovation in developing countries. The book also discusses whether and how patents can promote innovation in China’s biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, based on the study of market scale, R&D capacity, innovation model and patent legislation and cases.This comprehensively researched book will be invaluable to multinational biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies either doing business or planning to do business in China. Practitioners and policymakers as well as academics and students specializing in IP law, economics and technology should also not be without this eloquent book.