TIIP: Patent Continuation Abuse

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: TIIP Newsletter 2005-1
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2005 19:42:25 -0500
From: Tiip Newsletter <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]

Newsletter
TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Issue 2005-1

To view the complete contents click on:
http://www.researchoninnovation.org/tiip/index.htm

* * * *
Patent Continuation Abuse

Mark Lemley and Kimberly Moore take a comprehensive look at a US
patent practice that is not well-known: continuations. Under this
practice, a patent application can be kept alive even after the
patent examiner has issued a “final rejection.” Lemley and Moore
look at policy changes to limit some common abuses.

Submarines in Software

One such abuse is the practice of “submarine patenting”—keeping a
patent application secret for a long time and then springing it
on an industry that has already invested heavily in the
technology. Stuart Graham and David Mowery examine the role of
submarine patents in software patenting.

Global Welfare & Drug Patents

Should patent laws for pharmaceuticals be relaxed in poor
countries? Doing so involves a trade-off: it may save lives now,
but it may reduce incentives for drug companies to develop new
products. F. M. Scherer calculates the net effect of this
trade-off and concludes that it may well be better to let poor
countries free-ride.

Who Patents and Why?

Wesley Cohen, Richard Nelson and John Walsh report on the
comprehensive Carnegie Mellon survey on innovation at
manufacturing firms. They find important differences across
industries as to why firms patent based on the nature of the
technology.

Patents and Innovation

One difficult empirical puzzle is the relationship between
patents and innovation. Petra Moser looks at this issue with a
unique dataset of innovations exhibited at World's Fairs during
the 19th century. She finds that countries with patent systems do
not have a higher rate of innovation per capita, but patents
affect the industries in which different countries make their
innovations.

---------------------
Changing of the Guard

Beginning with the next issue, Robert M. Hunt of the Federal
Reserve Bank of Philadelphia will become our new Editor, and our
current Editor, James Bessen, will no longer have this newsletter
as an excuse for failing to keep up with his other commitments.
We look forward to Bob's stewardship.



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