Management of intellectual property rights in European biotechnology firms

The aim of this article is to observe a "real world picture" of how Europea n biotechnology firms manage their inventions, and in particular, how they make use of patent protection. The intention is to compare the behavior and the requirements of the biotechnology industry with the existing legal fra mework in Europe, to determine industrial needs, anti to identify insuffici encies in the institutional settings. The analysis focuses besides the gene ral competitive performance of Europe in comparison to the United States on the use of patents by firms in different European countries, the decision to keep inventions secret or to patent. the different procedural ways to ap ply for patent protection, as well as the importance of patenting related c osts and strategic uses of patenting. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc.