Academic Patenting in France, Italy and Sweden

Book chapter, 2009

This chapter asks whether national institutions determine patenting behaviour of academics located in three different European countries. The chapter uses the CESPRI database on EPO patents, in connection with cleaned patent data, and gathered by researcher, for each of the three countries over the period 1978 to 2004. We would expect differing national institutions affect propensity to patent. However, the results indicate that the patenting patterns are similar across the countries, and also within scientific disciplines across countries. Comparisons are made with evidence from the USA, indicating similar levels of academic patenting and firm involvement. The chapter thus focuses upon the patenting of academics at the individual level, and uses that data to describe the patenting behaviour in terms of countries and disciplines.