Thanks to a Tweet from Axel Horns I discovered this link to an invitation from the European Commission to tender for yet another patent-focused research project: "Patent costs and impact on innovation: international comparison and analysis of the impact on the exploitation of R&D results by SMEs, universities and public research organisations".
No doubt the research will be rigorous and will deliver plenty of data -- but this blogger has a hunch that he and probably many of the readers of this blog could fill a blank piece of paper with a list of main findings and conclusions that would not fall far short of the real thing.
Jeremy: I might reach the same conclusion as you (and most readers of this blog), but I think that such studies are extremely useful in providing evidence to allow informed policy making. We're seeing an attack on the fundamentals of the patent system through a number of quarters - and whilst I'm convinced that the patent system does support innovation, there is a surprising lack of neutral data.
ReplyDeleteI read recently an attack on software patents in which an independent "expert" was praised for his critique of the patent system. Following up the citations revealed a much weaker piece of analysis than implied by the citing author.