DETERMINANTS OF PATENT RIGHTS - A CROSS-NATIONAL-STUDY

This paper presents an index of patent rights for 110 countries for th e period 1960-1990. The index is used to examine what factors or chara cteristics of economies determine how strongly patent rights will be p rotected. The evidence does indicate that more developed economies ten d to provide stronger protection. But the underlying factors which inf luence patent protection levels are the country's level of research an d development (R&D) activity, market environment, and international in tegration, which are correlated with its level of development. The res ults qualify, however, that R&D activity influences patent protection levels after a nation's research sector reaches a critical size, An im plication of this is that to raise patent protection levels in weakly protecting countries, it is important to foster a significant research base in those countries and thereby create incentives for protecting patent rights. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.