Patents, Innovation and Economic Performance - OECD Conference Proceedings (Electronic book text)

Innovation increases companies' competitive advantage and spurs nations' economic growth. Businesses and public research organisations now patent more inventions than they did just a few years ago, and the number of patents filed in Europe, Japan and the United States increased by more than half over the past decade. Patent regimes have also undergone major changes in recent years, most of them strengthening the rights of patent holders and extending the scope of patentable inventions to include genetic inventions, software and even business methods. The effects of these changes on innovation, economic performance and technology diffusion are not entirely certain, especially as they relate to different industry sectors.

To address these questions, the OECD organised a conference in August 2003, the objective of which was to provide policy makers with factual evidence and analysis, and to set out implications for the development of patent regimes that contribute more efficiently to innovation and economic performance. This publication presents a collection of key policy-oriented empirical studies and stakeholders' views, as presented and discussed in six thematic sessions, covering:

Patents and economic performance.

Changes in patent regimes.

Patents and entrepreneurship.

Patents and diffusion of technology.

IPR for software and services.

Current and future policy challenges.

The conference was designed as a forum for discussion among business executives, patent office officials, policy makers, economists, legal experts and other stakeholders.