Patents and the Measurement of International Competitiveness: New Data on the Use of Patents by Universities, Small Firms and Individual Inventors

by William Kingston, Kevin Scally

Overview

This highly original book represents a major advance in the use of patents to compare countries' technological competitiveness. It tabulates and analyses 280,000 United States patents from countries across the world over a ten year period. Specifically, these patents were granted to 'not-for-profit' entities (mainly universities and research institutes), firms with no more than 500 employees, or to individual inventors. For each of these groups, the book provides statistics and discussion on how long patents are kept in force, the extent to which they are cited, and how far inventions made in different countries are in fact owned in the United States.

Inter-country comparisons are provided between groupings of large and small advanced countries and between the sizeable number of countries for which patents are only just beginning to become economically important. The fact that all these patents have been subjected to the same examination process facilitates genuine like-for-like comparisons. Some of the more interesting emergent international differences in inventions are also explored. This book will provide a mine of reliable data for econometric studies of international competitiveness.

Believed to be the first ever measurement of the patentable output of universities and research institutes worldwide because it provides the first fully international comparisons, this book will be invaluable to: patent offices and attorneys, university technical transfer offices, national industrial development agencies, as well as economists with an interest in international trade and technology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781843764441
Publisher:	Edward Elgar Publishing
Publication date:	10/29/2006
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

William Kingston and Kevin Scally, School of Business, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

Date of Birth:

1911

Date of Death:

1990

Table of Contents

Contents: Preface Part I: International Comparisons 1. Introduction 2. OECD Small Entity Patents 3. Nonprofit Patents (Including Universities) 4. Small Firm Patents 5. Individual Patents 6. The Non-OECD Countries 7. Summary and Conclusions Part II: Small Entity Data for Selected Countries Tables for the OECD Countries, with Israel and Taiwan Appendices Index

Editorial Reviews

'Kingston and Scally have presented a valuable broad-brush picture of worldwide SME activity.'

Roger Cullis