Passing the European Patent Office: evidence from the data-processing industry

This explorative paper investigates how firms in the global data-processing industry that seek patent protection for their innovations in Europe have coped with the patentability requirements of the European Patent Office. St arting from a continuous research spectrum with basic research on the one e xtreme and development on the other, the main hypothesis is as follows: fir ms that carry out more basic research are more successful in passing the pa tent office than firms that focus more on development. Basic research explo res more novel and unknown technical paths, while development aims more at modifying and redesigning existing products. Therefore, the results from mo re basic-oriented research are expected to fulfill the patentability requir ements relatively more often than the results from development. This hypoth esis is tested and largely confirmed for the global data-processing industr y (with a sample of 44 firms) in the period 1986-1990, using indirect varia bles for basic research and development. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V, All rights reserved.