An Empirical Look At Software Patents.

Name: An Empirical Look At Software Patents.
Cite: 16 J. of Economics and Management Strategy 157
Year: 2007
Bluebook cite: James Bessen & Robert M. Hunt, An Empirical Look At Software Patents., 16 J. of Economics and Management Strategy 157 (Mar. 2007)
Author: James Bessen & Robert M. Hunt
URL: http://search.ebscohost.com.www.libproxy.wvu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=23709782&site=ehost-live or http://www.researchoninnovation.org/swpat.pdf
Item Type: article
Summary: U.S. legal changes have made it easier to obtain patents on inventions that use software.
Software patents have grown rapidly and now comprise 15 percent of all patents. They
are acquired primarily by large manufacturing firms in industries known for strategic
patenting; only 5 percent belong to software publishers. The very large increase in
software patent propensity over time is not adequately explained by changes in R&D
investments, employment of computer programmers, or productivity growth. The residual
increase in patent propensity is consistent with a sizeable rise in the cost effectiveness of
software patents during the 1990s. We find evidence that software patents substitute for
R&D at the firm level; they are associated with lower R&D intensity. This result occurs
primarily in industries known for strategic patenting and is difficult to reconcile with the
traditional incentive theory of patents.

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