Product Development and the Timing of Information Disclosure under U.S.and Japanese Patent Systems / Reiko Aoki, Thomas J. Prusa.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Aoki, Reiko.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Prusa, Thomas J.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w5063.

NBER working paper series no. w5063

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 1995.

Summary:

This paper examines the consequences of the differences in the timing of information disclosure between the U.S. and Japanese patent systems. Under the Japanese system it is possible for a firm to apply for a patent knowing the exact specifications of a rival's patent application. In contrast, in the U.S. the only way a firm learns about a rival's innovation is upon the actual granting of the rival's patent. We argue that this difference enables Japanese firms to coordinate their R&D efforts better than their U.S. counterparts and that this, in turn, leads to smaller quality improvements under the Japanese system. We show that the creation/diffusion tradeoff of patents can be influenced not only by the scope and length of patent protection but also by other features of the patenting process.

Notes:

Print version record

March 1995.