Given the growing size of patent databases and portfolios, scholars and practitioners alike need metrics to help them in weighting patent counts or in ranking patents to focus on the most important ones. The main objective of this paper is to help them in this task with a practical and...

The decision of firms to renew their patents is largely assumed to be the result of a careful valuation exercise to balance their expected revenues with renewal fees. This article extends this line of reasoning to all patent applications filed to the EPO over a 20 years period and analyzes with...

This paper compares corporate and academic patents and tests whether they have similar value and similar determinants of value. The empirical results based on an in-depth analysis of 400 biotech patents applied by Belgian universities and firms lead to the following observations :(i) the value...

It has long been implicitly assumed that the roaring backlogs experienced by most patent offices around the world – and harshly criticized by many patentees – are a mere mechanical consequence of surging numbers of patent filings. However, different voices suggest that the patent system may...

This paper puts forward new potential determinants of patent value which are mainly related to the identification of institutional sources of knowledge and the geographic scope of patenting strategy. The impact of these new indicators is evaluated through an empirical analysis that focuses on...

The length of patent rights is an issue of considerable importance in the design of patent systems, and its optimality has been intensively discussed in the literature. This dimension – taking the form of the number of years during which a given patent has been maintained – has been...

The objective of this paper is to provide an in-depth analysis of the patenting performances of six Belgian universities over the period 1985-1999. Beside the evolution of the number of patent families, we provide insights about the potential value of these patents (through forward patent...

The renewal of patents and their geographical scope for protection constitute two essential dimensions in a patent’s life, and probably the most frequently used patent value indicators. The intertwining of these dimensions (the geographical scope of protection may vary over time) makes their...

This paper aims at contributing to the literature on the determinants of patent value. First, it puts forward a new potential class of value determinants in the form of filing strategies (encompassing filing routes and drafting styles). Second, it provides empirical evidence suggesting that...

This paper analyses the industrial and entrepreneurial value of 334 patent families applied for by six major Belgian universities. It identifies the value determinants underlying the patent documents and highlights the positive and significant impact of collaboration and tacit scientific...