In April 2003 the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission proposed a complicated marketdesign – the Wholesale Power Market Platform (WPMP) – for common adoption byall U.S. wholesale power markets. Versions of the WPMP have been implemented in NewEngland, New York, the mid-Atlantic states,...

Recent surveys report that firms claim they do not rely heavily on patents in order toappropriate a return on their innovation. Yet, firms do patent, as indicated by the largenumber of patents that are granted. This paper offers a possible resolution to this puzzle.It takes a simplified version...

Based on the LEN-model KRAPP (1999, 2000) analyses for different constellations howcollusive behaviour of agents influences the principal’s welfare. We try to complement this analysisby considering additional scenarios. Furthermore, we take into account that the principal cannot ap-praise...

We show that if patent protection and trade secrecy generate asymmetricmarket structure, an innovator may prefer patent protection than trade secrecy even ifthe diffusion probability is higher under the former but it increases marketconcentration by preventing some imitators...

This paper reviews the literature on the economics of intellectual property rights (IPR), with a particular focus on the main industrial property rights of patents and trade marks. Intellectual property rights arise from the legal protection accorded to certain inventions or creations. We begin...

Compulsory licensing allows firms in developing countries to produce foreign-owned inventions withoutthe consent of foreign patent owners. This paper uses an exogenous event of compulsory licensingafter World War I under the Trading with the Enemy Act to examine the long run effects of...

This paper analyses whether strategic motives for patenting influence the characteristics ofcompanies’ patent portfolios. We use the number of citations and oppositions to representthese characteristics. The investigation is based on survey and patent data from German companies.We find clear...

A stronger long-term orientation is considered a competitive advantage of family firms relative to non-family firms. In this study, we use panel data of U.S. firms and analyze this proposition. Our findings are surprising. Only in when the family is involved in the management of the firm is the...

A set of U.S.-based companies is investigated regarding the effectiveness of intellectual property protection mechanisms (IPPMs) in the formation of research partnerships. Patents are the most frequently used IPPM to protect both background and foreground knowledge in partnerships. Other IPPMs...

It is shown that spillovers can enhance private returns to innovation if they feedback into the dynamic research of the original inventor (Internalized spillovers), butwill always reduce private returns, if the original inventor does not benefit fromthe advancements other inventors build into...