Economic studies that aim at comparing the patent system social efficiency versus an ex-post reward system rest on a traditional view of patents. They make the hypothesis that firms use the patent system only in order to be granted a short-term monopoly rent and therefore that patents lead to...

The standard view of patents emphasizes their dynamic efficiency. It considers that, by providing firms with incentives to invest in R&D and to disclose their knowledge, patents encourage innovation and increase social welfare in the long run. Yet, a growing body of literature opposes this view...

In France patents go to the first to file the patent application and not to the first to invent. Yet, this system is combined with a rule of prior user right that grants to first inventors the right to continue to use and commercialise their invention although it has been patented by another...

Studies that aim at comparing the patent system social efficiency versus an ex-post reward system rest on a traditional view of patents. They make the hypothesis that firms use the patent system only in order to be granted a short-term monopoly rent and therefore that patents lead to strong and...

Current innovation policies (including patents) are based on the traditional vision of knowledge, which assumes that knowledge circulates as fluently as pure information. The existence of knowledge spillovers leads to under investments in research activities and thus, calls for strong knowledge...

This paper analyses the strategic uses of patents in markets for technology. In particular, we study the behaviors of technological firms, patent brokers and patent trolls and explore their consequences on the amount of R&D investments of the economy. We show that patent brokers, in their pure...