"Learning-by-Licensing": R&D and Technology Licensing in Brazilian Invention

This paper models the decision of a firm to engage in innovative activity and to protect the results of that activity. Using a unique firm-level dataset collected for this purpose, estimation indicates that the interactions between current R&D and past licensing are prime contributors to innovative success. A firm's experience with technology licenses not only adds to the productivity of current R&D, but also affects whether a firm applies for full patent or utility model protection. Firm size, employee training and knowledge spillovers also have an impact on the inventive process.