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This article examines the gender gap in patenting activities and the predominance of male innovators among outstanding inventors, so-called 'stars'. In particular, we investigate different metrics of productivity among top inventors, identified employing different definitions with respect to the quantity and quality of output. We distinguish between prolific inventors, with high numbers of patents registered in their name, and high-quality inventors, with portfolios comprising patents with large numbers of citations. Using patent data for more than 600,000 inventors, we find that star inventors differ from the pool of non-star inventors in terms of gender: while for non-star inventors being a woman constitutes a significant disadvantage, for stars it actually presents a positive association both with quantity and quality of innovative outputs. Moreover, career length constitutes a key premium for female inventors' productivity, but with smaller magnitudes among stars. The only exception where we observe no gender differences is among inventors with large portfolios (more than five patent families): among them, women do not display any significant gap in the quality of outputs, nor does career length provide a gendered premium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the phenomenon of patent collateralization by empirically focusing on the factors that affect the outcome of the collateralization process. In particular, we want to examine to what extent patent quality, lenders' characteristics, as well as lenders' selection capabilities (i.e. in identifying high-quality patents) affect the likelihood of observing a security interest release. We identify the patents recorded in security agreements and their release from the USPTO Patent Assignment database. The final dataset is made up of a total of 8818 security interest agreement records, involving 133,110 patents pledged as collateral for debt between 2007 and 2010. We find evidence that a security interest is more likely to be released for patents with a higher technical merit and when the lenders are more experienced and are specialty finance companies. When considering other types of lenders (i.e. banks in particular) or less experienced lenders, the positive association between the security interest release and the technical merit of the pledged patent is lower. The evidence suggests that IP-backed loans represent an effective financial channel for those firms that control valuable intangible assets and that experience and specialization allow lenders to develop better selection capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the spillover from the outcomes of military R&D to subsequent civil applications. We aim to identify the characteristics of those military innovations that are more likely to be exploited in civilian areas (i.e. dual use) and we build on previous literature to develop a methodology to identify such cases. Using both patent and citation data, we investigate country effects and invention-level characteristics that increase the likelihood to observe a military-to-civil knowledge spillover. We test these relationships by estimating probit, survival, and competing-event models on a large sample of military inventions filed between 2002 and 2012. Our results indicate that the incidence of dual use decreases during the period analysed and is heterogeneous across both technologies and countries. Military inventions having wider technological and geographical scopes are more likely to be cited by subsequent civil patents but military-to-civil spillovers occur later than military-to-military ones. Finally, the first dual use application of a military invention tends to appear within the country boundaries, suggesting that cross-border knowledge spillovers are not immediate. Our evidence is functional to the assessment of the potential indirect effects generated by the innovative activities of companies operating in the defence sector on the civilian sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contribution of managers to the performance of football teams in the Italian Serie A is investigated. Previous results are extended by analyzing two measures of performance: the awarded points from winning matches (sport performance) and the growth of the market value of players (financial performance). Several empirical methods are employed: OLS regressions, Shorrocks-Shapley decompositions of R-squared and Data Envelopment Analysis. Our findings suggest that managers exert a significant influence on both sport and financial performances with differences between top and worst coaches. However, most of the observable characteristics in a manager's curriculum are not significantly related to team performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the effects of changes in the level of product market regulation on the industry-level innovation intensity in the EU electricity sector during years 1990–2009. In order to test the impact of deregulatory policies on the propensity to innovate in energy technologies, we match data on R&D budgets and European Patent Office patent applications from International Energy Agency and Eurostat Databases with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development indexes of product market regulation. The analysis addresses innovations in the traditional electricity-related technologies, but keeping aside renewable energy technologies. Findings show an increase in patenting activities following market deregulation, measured along three factors: entry barriers, public ownership and vertical integration. In particular, econometric results suggest that policies aimed at reducing vertical integration – i.e. to unbundle networks from energy generation and supply – have a positive impact on innovation activity. Results are robust to the introduction of controls for country-level public R&D expenditures in the electricity field. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study provides an empirical analysis of patent declarations at the European Telecommunications Standards Institute concerning the core releases of the Long Term Evolution standard for mobile communications. The analysis of the declared Standard Essential Patents suggests that the distribution of essential inventions across firms is less concentrated than in previous mobile standard generations [Global System for Mobile communications and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System in 1991 and 1999], mainly due to the entry of new global players. We investigated the characteristics of the declared patents and their value as proxied by the number of citations received before and after the declaration. We distinguish between entrant and incumbent firms. The declared patents receive on average more citations than a control sample of nondeclared. However, such citation premium is higher for incumbent firms than entrants. Overall evidence suggests that new global players in the field are more likely to declare patents with a narrower technological scope and that have a relatively lower technological merit as captured by citations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is twofold: to analyze to what extent innovation output of R & D collaborations, proxied by co-patenting activities in terms of quantity, characteristics and value, differs depending on whether the engaged R & D partners have a certain type of relationship (allies, suppliers and subsidiaries); to identify possible automakers co-patenting patterns taking into account the differences in the innovation output with their R & D partners. Design/methodology/approach – To reach the aims, the authors matched two types of data: co-assigned patent portfolio of four automakers and relationship type between automakers and their co-assignees. Matching the company names of the two data sources allowed the authors to obtain the final data set used to carry out extensive descriptive and regression analysis, both on a firm- and patent-level. Findings – Results show differences in the characteristics and the technological value of patented inventions in relation with the type of collaboration partner; they also support the authors in the identification of four co-patenting patterns (contingent, purposive, watchful and advanced) according to the co-patenting propensity and the presence of a preferred relationship type. Originality/value – The paper contributes to the literature by investigating the presence of differences across the patenting activities of a selection of automakers and their supplier, allied and subsidiary firms. The issue related to patent value represents an emerging area of interest in the field of collaborations for innovation. The methodology constitutes a novelty by matching two different sources and standardizing the company names (“name game”) through an automated algorithm and a double manual check, by searching company web sites and corporate trees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the proactive management of patents and their exploitation through licensing out and sales transactions have been enhanced by the development of intermediaries and trading platforms. This paper first investigates the main drivers of companies' decisions to engage in patent licensing and sales; then, it examines how improvements in the marketplace for patents and more intense involvement of patent brokers might impact the factors hindering the development of patent transactions. The study's findings are supported by the results found in the scientific literature and by evidence from a survey conducted on a sample of companies involved in patent transactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]