This authoritative collection reprints the key articles in the field of the economics of patents. The editor's selection, contextualised by a comprehensive introduction, examines the classic literature on the design and evolution of the patent system, the now well-established body of work on the use of patent statistics as a measure of invention and technological change, and the new interest in the analysis of corporate patenting. Volume I explores the nature of the patent system, the breadth of patent scope, and the historical foundations of patenting. It goes on to cover overall macro-trends and sectoral patterns of patenting over long periods, as well as critical appraisals of the use of patent statistics. Volume II addresses topics such as firm motivations to patent, the valuation of patents, and determinants of variations in the propensity to patent. It concludes with the analysis of corporate technological profiles, and patterns of knowledge flows, science-technology relationships and social networks.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Volume I: The Patent System and the Measurement of Invention Acknowledgements Introduction John Cantwell PART I THE NATURE OF THE PATENT SYSTEM 1. Ove Granstrand (1999), ‘Patents and Intellectual Property: A General Framework’ 2. Johann Peter Murmann (2003), ‘Intellectual Property Right Regimes’, in Knowledge and Competitive Advantage: The Coevolution of Firms, Technology, and National Institutions, excerpt from Chapter 2: ‘Country-Level Performance Differences and Their Institutional Foundations’ 3. Robert P. Merges and Richard R. Nelson (1994), ‘On Limiting or Encouraging Rivalry in Technical Progress: The Effect of Patent Scope Decisions’ 4. Roberto Mazzoleni and Richard R. Nelson (1998), ‘The Benefits and Costs of Strong Patent Protection: A Contribution to the Current Debate’ PART II HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS OF PATENTING 5. Christine MacLeod (1988), ‘The Long-Term Rise in Patents’ 6. Richard J. Sullivan (1989), ‘England’s “Age of Invention”: The Acceleration of Patents and Patentable Invention during the Industrial Revolution’ 7. Josh Lerner (2002), ‘150 Years of Patent Protection’ 8. Naomi R. Lamoreaux and Kenneth L. Sokoloff (2001), ‘Market Trade in Patents and the Rise of a Class of Specialized Inventors in the 19th-Century United States’ PART III OPEN MACRO-TRENDS AND SECTORAL PATTERNS 9. Simon S. Kuznets (1930), ‘Appendix. The Statistics of Patents’ 10. Jacob Schmookler (1954), ‘The Level of Inventive Activity’ 11. Birgitte Andersen (1998), ‘The Evolution of Technological Trajectories 1890–1990’ 12. John Cantwell and Giovanna Vertova (2004), ‘Historical Evolution of Technological Diversification’ PART IV MEASUREMENT OF TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE: EARLY STUDIES 13. Jacob Schmookler (1950), ‘The Interpretation of Patent Statistics’ 14. Joseph Rossman and Barkev S. Sanders (1957), ‘The Patent Utilization Study’ 15. Jacob Schmookler (1966), ‘Patent Statistics’ 16. William S. Comanor and F.M. Scherer (1969), ‘Patent Statistics as a Measure of Technical Change’ PART V MEASUREMENT OF TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE: MORE MATURE REFLECTIONS 17. L.G. Soete and Sally M.E. Wyatt (1983), ‘The Use of Foreign Patenting as an Internationally Comparable Science and Technology Output Indicator’ 18. K. Pavitt (1988), ‘Uses and Abuses of Patent Statistics’ 19. Zoltan J. Acs and David B. Audretsch (1989), ‘Patents as a Measure of Innovative Activity’ 20. Zvi Griliches (1990), ‘Patent Statistics as Economic Indicators: A Survey’ Name Index Volume II: Corporate Patenting An introduction by the editor to both volumes appears in Volume I PART I FIRM MOTIVATIONS TO PATENT 1. Richard C. Levin, Alvin K. Klevorick, Richard R. Nelson and Sidney G. Winter (1987), ‘Appropriating the Returns from Industrial Research and Development’ 2. Edwin Mansfield (1986), ‘Patents and Innovation: An Empirical Study’ 3. John Cantwell and Pilar Barrera (1998), ‘The Localisation of Corporate Technological Trajectories in the Interwar Cartels: Cooperative Learning Versus an Exchange of Knowledge’ 4. Bronwyn H. Hall and Rosemarie Ham Ziedonis (2001), ‘The Patent Paradox Revisited: An Empirical Study of Patenting in the U.S. Semiconductor Industry, 1979–1995’ PART II MEASUREMENT OF TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE AT THE FIRM AND INDUSTRY LEVEL 5. Barkev S. Sanders, Joseph Rossman and L. James Harris (1959), ‘Patent Acquisition by Corporations’ 6. F.M. Scherer (1965), ‘Firm Size, Market Structure, Opportunity, and the Output of Patented Inventions’ 7. F.M. Scherer (1983), ‘The Propensity to Patent’ 8. Markus Reitzig (2004), ‘The Private Values of “Thickets” and “Fences”: Towards an Updated Picture of the Use of Patents Across Industries’ PART III VALUATION OF PATENTS 9. Bronwyn H. Hall, Adam Jaffe and Manuel Trajtenberg (2005), ‘Market Value and Patent Citations’ 10. Dietmar Harhoff, Frederic M. Scherer and Katrin Vopel (2003), ‘Citations, Family Size, Opposition and the Value of Patent Rights’ 11. Atul Nerkar (2003), ‘Old Is Gold? The Value of Temporal Exploration in the Creation of New Knowledge’ 12. Markus Reitzig (2003), ‘What Determines Patent Value? Insights from the Semiconductor Industry’ PART IV ANALYSIS OF CORPORATE TECHNOLOGICAL PROFILES 13. Pari Patel and Keith Pavitt (1998), ‘The Wide (and Increasing) Spread of Technological Competencies in the World’s Largest Firms: A Challenge to Conventional Wisdom’ 14. John Cantwell and Felicia Fai (1999), ‘Firms as the Source of Innovation and Growth: The Evolution of Technological Competence’ 15. Toby E. Stuart and Joel M. Podolny (1996), ‘Local Search and the Evolution of Technological Capabilities’ 16. Lori Rosenkopf and Atul Nerkar (2001), ‘Beyond Local Search: Boundary-Spanning, Exploration, and Impact in the Optical Disk Industry’ PART V ASSESSING PATTERNS OF KNOWLEDGE FLOWS, SCIENCE-TECHNOLOGY RELATIONSHIPS AND SOCIAL NETWORKS 17. Albert G.Z. Hu and Adam B. Jaffe (2003), ‘Patent Citations and International Knowledge Flow: The Cases of Korea and Taiwan’ 18. Adam B. Jaffe and Manuel Trajtenberg (1999), ‘International Knowledge Flows: Evidence From Patent Citations’ 19. Bhaven N. Sampat, David C. Mowery and Arvids A. Ziedonis (2003), ‘Changes in University Patent Quality after the Bayh-Doyle Act: A Re-Examination’ 20. Joel M. Podolny and Toby E. Stuart (1995), ‘A Role-Based Ecology of Technological Change’ Name Index