Strength Of Intellectual Property Protection Research Articles

Does Government Spending Affect the Degree of Embeddedness in the Global Value Chain? - A Case Study of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Industry

Abstract The pharmaceutical industry, as a high-input, high-risk, and high-return sector, is closely related to human life and health. With the continuous refinement of the global division of labor, the global value chain system of the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry is constantly being perfected, and the government's investment in health is also increasing. This paper uses databases such as UIBE and GHED from 2000 to 2018 to calculate the degree of embeddedness in the global value chain of the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry in 64 countries and empirically tests the internal mechanism by which government health expenditure affects this embeddedness. The study finds that government health expenditure has a "U"-shaped non-linear relationship with the embeddedness of the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry in the global value chain of the home country. The mediating effect shows that government health expenditure can influence the intensity of intellectual property protection, which in turn affects the embeddedness of the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry in the global value chain. Furthermore, the study finds that government health expenditure also has a "U"-shaped non-linear relationship with the strength of intellectual property protection in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry, and that the intensity of intellectual property protection has a positive impact on its embeddedness in the global value chain. Keywords: Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, Global Value Chain, Intellectual Property Protection, Government Expenditure.

The least developed countries' transitional exemption in the TRIPS agreement and the strength of intellectual property protection

Has the transitional exemption granted to the least developed countries (LDCs) Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in the WTO's Trade-Related Intellectual Property (TRIPS) Agreement helped LDCs reduce the strength of their Intellectual Property Protection (IPR)? The present study addresses this question by using 24 LDCs (treatment group) and two control groups, over the period from 1970 to 2015. The empirical analysis has established that the LDC transitional exemption was instrumental in reducing the IPR levels in LDCs, and LDCs that had lower IPR levels (i.e., those located in the lower quantiles) enjoyed larger reductions in IPR levels, thanks to this transitional exemption. Moreover, the effect of the LDC transitional exemption on LDCs' IPR levels depended on LDCs' duration of the membership in the WTO, as well as on their level of export variety-driven innovation, measured by their level of export product concentration or alternatively their degree of economic complexity.

FDI and Intellectual Property Protection in China: A Game Theory Perspective

The large-scale spread of R&D activities by MNCs to investment host countries is a new phenomenon of globalization in the past ten years. For the host country, especially a developing host country such as China, how to promote the spillover effect of TNC research and development institutions on the host country and curb its crowding-out effect is a new topic. This paper analyzes the R&D strategy adopted by transnational corporations in China. We explain the relationship between the strength of intellectual property protection in China and the choice of the organization form of R&D activities by transnational corporations with game theory and proves the relationship between the two with data. Finally, policy implications are proposed for the trend of sole proprietorship of R&D activities of transnational corporations.

Open innovation and patenting activity in health care

PurposeThe study aims to explore the interplay between open innovation and intellectual property. Differently from previous studies, we argue that open innovation fosters firm's patenting activity.Design/methodology/approachWe use linear regression analysis to test model's hypotheses. Data are drawn from the Eurostat statistics and refer to a large sample of European firms (NACE Rev.2).FindingsThe findings confirm that open innovation fosters patenting activity in health care, also thanks to huge governments' expenditures in this market.Research limitations/implicationsThe study focuses solely on European firms and it adopts a traditional linear approach. So, we cannot exclude that different dynamics may occur across European borders. Future research should address this concern by focusing on multi-country comparative studies.Practical implicationsOpen innovation is the most suitable model for health industry, because it improves both innovation performance and intellectual capital of firms.Originality/valueThe study tackles an existing gap of the literature by considering how the presence of large customers impacts the strength of intellectual property protection.

DOES INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS PROTECTION CONSTITUTE A BARRIER TO RENEWABLE ENERGY? AN ECONOMETRIC ANALYSIS

This study uses an econometric approach to investigate the role of IPR protection on renewable energy adoption using panel data of 102 countries at five-year intervals over the period 1990–2005. The Ginarte-Park index is used as a measure of the strength of intellectual property protection while the adoption of renewable energy is measured by the share of renewable energy in total final energy use. The results reveal that the level of intellectual property rights protection and reform of the intellectual property rights regime do not have significant impact on renewable energy adoption, suggesting that IPR protection is not a cause for concern in the global quest for clean energy transition. On the contrary, we find that trade openness has a stronger influence in the transition to clean energy. Based on the findings of the study, we conclude that IPR protection does not influence renewable energy adoption except in high R&D countries; rather policy makers should concentrate efforts on economic factors, such as trade openness, that drive the adoption of renewable energy technologies.

Free Trade Agreements With The United States: 8 Lessons For Prospective Parties From Australia’s Experience

Abstract This article identifies 8 key lessons for those States contemplating a free trade agreement with the United States (U.S.) arising from Australia’s experience. The standards of intellectual property protection under the Australia-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and their impact on pharmaceutical prices in Australia are a particular focus. Prospective parties must first conduct a national interest self-assessment which reviews the desired strength of intellectual property protection under national law and their preference for using flexibilities available to them under the existing international intellectual property rights framework. The United States negotiates free trade agreements in light of previous ones, negotiating outcomes obtained in other fora and the decisions of international trade tribunals. Negotiations typically occur behind closed doors, which is a process having adverse implications for transparent decision-making, public consultation periods and contributions from interested non-governmental actors. A concluded agreement will build on prior treaties and influence the course of future international arrangements. But the impact of a United States free trade agreement is not always clear, including because of a lack of reliable data, and the extent of national legal change is a contested issue given existing reform agendas and external influences. The United States seek to redesign national health care systems in its own image and had little success in Australia’s case. National legal systems need not be harmonised: although there can be some convergence in intellectual property rights regimes, significant differences may also remain. Negotiators must reconcile competing cultures, philosophies and perspectives between States for a free trade agreement to be worthwhile.

Trade Agreements and Pharmaceutical Patent Protection: Implications for the Governance over Pharmaceutical Products in Canada

This paper was prepared for a course on Canadian health policy. Its purpose is to expose the harmful ramifications of international trade agreements on the pharmaceutical market in Canada and the governance surrounding this market. This paper will explore the various implications that trade agreements have on the affordability of drugs, the strength of intellectual property protection, and the transfer of authority and influence from government to “Big Pharma.” This paper will unravel the reality that trade agreements are not beneficial to the Canadian people looking to access an affordable pharmaceutical market, but rather, act quite contrary to this. Facts will show that trade agreements work to put money into the pockets of large brand-name pharmaceutical companies in the forms of billions of dollars of revenue and profit. This paper will encourage readers to question the feasibility of extending patent legislation for brand-name pharmaceutical products, the increasing role of trade agreements and the pharmaceutical industry in Canada, and the substitutability of brand-name drugs over cheaper generic alternatives.

The strength of pharmaceutical IPRs vis-à-vis foreign direct investment in clinical research: Preliminary findings

This article examines the effect of the intellectual property (IP) environment in developing countries on the level of foreign direct investment (FDI) and technology transfer occurring in the biopharmaceutical field in these countries. In particular, it considers the correlation between the strength of IP protection in several developing countries (using the Pharmaceutical IP Index) and the number of clinical trials taking place in these countries (as a proxy of biomedical FDI). The article finds that overall, the strength of national pharmaceutical IP environments provide a good estimate of the level of clinical trials taking place in these countries. Accordingly, countries with a more robust level of pharmaceutical IP protection tend to enjoy a greater level of clinical trial activity by multinational research-based companies. In other words, by choosing to improve their level of protection of pharmaceutical IPRs (together with other factors), developing countries may also be exposed to higher levels of biomedical FDI, not least in the field of clinical trials.

On the strength of intellectual property protection that nations provide

Researchers studying the commitment of countries to intellectual property rights run into the claim that the technology-haves (the developed countries) opt for relatively stronger protection of intellectual property, whereas the technology-have-nots (the developing countries) opt for weaker protection. It is but a short step from this assertion to the claim that this results in huge trade losses for the former. Using cross-national panel data for 1981–2000 we find that the evidence is only weakly consistent with this conjecture at best; and that the technology-have-nots more likely provided weaker protection due to paucity of financial resources and human capital, and their inward-looking trade-orientation.

Trade-related influences, foreign intellectual property rights and outbound international patenting

This paper provides an empirical investigation of the national determinants of outbound international patenting, particularly focusing on the roles of trade-related influences and the destination countries’ strength of intellectual property protection. Based on cross-patenting from 30 member countries in the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) between 1995 and 1998, empirical results suggest that the behavior of outbound international patenting is strongly and positively associated with trade-related influences, like exports and outward foreign direct investments. Moreover, controlling for other variables, a country with stronger protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) tends to force more foreign inventors to file for patent applications, lending a supportive view of cross-country evidence for the strong-IPR hypothesis.

Intellectual Property Protection and Technology Transfer: Evidence from US Multinationals

This paper investigates whether, in what direction, and to what extent one mode of technology transfer is influenced by the strength of intellectual property protection that host nations provide. Using data spanning the period 1977-1999, we find little support for the claim that strengthening intellectual property rights will have any sizable effect on the magnitude of overseas r&d investment by (US) multinationals. Any semblance of a positive relationship between these two variables vanishes the moment we introduce country fixed effects and time fixed effects into the regressions. One implication of our results is, that ceteris paribus, stronger intellectual property rights in the developing countries pursuant to the TRIPs agreement may not have any significant influence on technology transfer into these countries via overseas r&d.

Business enterprise R&D, technological change, and intellectual property protection

Very little empirical evidence exists on the relationship between intellectual property rights and innovation. Existing studies tend to be indirect and do not consider the influence of IPRs on innovation per se; nor do they adequately allow for the endogeneity of IPRs. Correcting for these omissions, we show that the strength of intellectual property protection has a strong positive influence on innovation.

Technology licensing partners

While formal economic theory has tended to focus on strategic behavior in technology licensing within a single industry, empirical analysis in this paper shows that transaction and learning cost considerations factor in heavily when choosing technology licensing partners in multi-industry environments. The probability that two companies will engage in a licensing agreement mainly depends on the relationship between the collaborating firms and on their respective characteristics, including the similarity of their market and technological profiles, familiarity through prior interaction, and previous licensing experience, and on the strength of intellectual property protection in the primary industry of the licensor.

DETERMINANTS OF TECHNOLOGY LICENSING.

The licensor's stock of knowledge and experience with technology licensing, the rate of growth of its primary sector, the strength of intellectual property protection, and the general purpose natur...

International Patterns of Intellectual Property Protection and Commodity Trade

This article provides an economic perspective on the cross-country patterns of intellectual property protection and commodity trade, and the linkages between these patterns. The objectives are to describe the characteristics of countries in relation to the strength of their intellectual property protection and to describe the relationship between the strength of country protection of intellectual property and U.S. exports to these countries. An economic framework for thinking about these relationships is provided, and data are examined for their consistency with the economic interpretations. Findings show that country protection of intellectual property is positively related to the level of country development and that U.S. bilateral exports are positively related to the strength of intellectual property protection in the recipient importing country.

The strength of pharmaceutical IPRs vis-Ã -vis foreign direct investment in clinical research: Preliminary findings

This article examines the effect of the intellectual property (IP) environment in developing countries on the level of foreign direct investment (FDI) and technology transfer occurring in the biopharmaceutical field in these countries. In particular, it considers the correlation between the strength of IP protection in several developing countries (using the Pharmaceutical IP Index) and the number of clinical trials taking place in these countries (as a proxy of biomedical FDI). The article finds that overall, the strength of national pharmaceutical IP environments provide a good estimate of the level of clinical trials taking place in these countries. Accordingly, countries with a more robust level of pharmaceutical IP protection tend to enjoy a greater level of clinical trial activity by multinational research-based companies. In other words, by choosing to improve their level of protection of pharmaceutical IPRs (together with other factors), developing countries may also be exposed to higher levels of biomedical FDI, not least in the field of clinical trials.