2016/11 | LEM Working Paper Series | ||||||||||||||||
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The causal effect of including standards-related documentation into patent prior art: evidence from a recent EPO policy change |
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Rudi Bekkers, Arianna Martinelli, Federico Tamagni |
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Keywords | |||||||||||||||||
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quality of patent process, patent scope, patent quality and value, technological standards, policy evaluation
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JEL Classifications | |||||||||||||||||
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O30, O31, C21
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Abstract | |||||||||||||||||
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This paper investigates a policy change undertaken by the European
Patent Office (EPO), aimed at improving the quality of their patent
granting process. This change involves the inclusion of information
revealed by participants to standards-setting processes into the prior
art that patent examiners consider when determining patent novelty and
inventive step. Our empirical analysis finds a signicant reduction in
the granting rate, yet no reduction in patent scope. We furthermore find
that patent quality has declined, suggesting that the policy actually
succeeded in rejecting undeserved, yet high-quality patents. Overall,
the policy improved the quality of the patent granting process.
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