Using data from the Federal Trade Commission's Line of Business Program and survey measures of technological opportunity and appropriability conditions, this paper finds that overall firm size has a very small, statistically in- significant effect on business unit R & D intensity when either...

This paper analyzes R&D policies when the returns to cost-reducing and demand-creating R&D are imperfectly appropriable and market structure is endogenous. Previous characterizations of appropriability are generalized to permit the possibility that own and rival R&D are imperfect substitutes. We...

In recent years, patent protection has extended into new areas, giving rise to serious concern about the lack of clear guidelines for patentability. We analyze the effect of introducing a patent opposition process that would allow patent validity to be challenged directly after a patent is...

The concept of technological opportunity is examined and the following three categories of technological opportunity sources are discussed: (1) advances in scientific understanding and technique which expand the pool of technological opportunities, (2) technological advances that originate in...

The set of technological opportunities in a given industry is one of the fundamental determinants of technical advance in that line of business. We examine the concept of technological opportunity and discuss three categories of sources of those opportunities: advances in scientific...

FrontMatter -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- Executive Summary -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Six Reasons to Pay Attention to the Patent System -- 3 Seven Criteria for Evaluating the Patent System -- 4 Seven Recommendations for a 21st-Century Patent System -- References -- Acronyms -- Law Cases Cited...

This paper analyzes R&D policies when the returns to cost-reducing and demand-creating R&D are imperfectly appropriable and market structure is endogenous. Previous characterizations of appropriability are generalized to permit the possibility that own and rival R&D are imperfect substitutes. We...

In this paper, we describe the results of an inquiry into the nature of appropriability conditions in over one hundred manufacturing industries, and we discuss how this information has been and might be used to cast light on important issues in the economics of innovation and public policy. Our...