Patent policies (OECD Science, Technology and Industry Outlook 2012)
A patent is a legal title that gives the holder the right to exclude others from using a particular invention. If the invention is successful on the market the patent holder will profit from its monopoly power. Patents therefore allow inventors to internalise more of the benefits they generate: without such a mechanism inventions would be immediately imitated and inventors' return on their investment would be reduced. Patents are granted in return for disclosure of the invention: they therefore play a role in the diffusion of knowledge. Inventors and firms apply for patents at patent offices, which grant (or reject) patents for their jurisdiction (domestic market), in accordance with their legal statute. Most patent offices are national; the main exception is the European Patent Office (EPO).
Country Reports
Thematic Reports
What Countries are Doing
Published by OECD in 2012
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Relevant IPP Pages
- Aspects and availability of patent data
- Industrial design
- International agreements on IP
- Substantive patent law
- Utility model law
- International bodies on IP
- Trade secrets
- Trademarks
- Bayh-Dole and related regulation
- IP and innovation in ICT
- IP licensing and sales by universities and PRIs
- IP operations and procedures
- IP to address social challenges
- Patent costs
- Patent data - Emerging technologies
- Patent data - Globalisation of research
- Patent data - Patenting strategies of firms
- Patent data - The performance of firms, regions and countries
- Patents
- Proliferation of patents
- Processes and contributions of IP systems to innovation