Our mission is to carry out applied economic analysis in the fields of patent systems, standard setting organizations and technology transfers. Using standard economic tools, including econometrics, we explore the changing conditions firms face and investigate the consequences of new mechanisms and strategies on social welfare. We regularly publish in renowned academic journals, discuss our research at international conferences and disseminate policy reports to the general public.
Presentation
The number of patents has soared in the last twenty years. In 2008 alone, 1.9 million new patents applications had been filed worldwide. This phenomenon not only mirrors the rise of specialized research and development sectors, but also the new importance of emerging countries in the knowledge economy in general. The changing origin of innovation creates new threats and challenges for established industries and calls for a re-examination of the existing intellectual property rights framework.
Our mission is to carry out applied economic analysis in the fields of patent systems, standard setting organizations and technology transfer. Using standard economic tools, we explore the changing conditions firms face and investigate the consequences on social welfare. We regularly publish in renowned academic journals, discuss our research at international conferences and disseminate policy reports to the general public.
The chair is a five-year research program initiated in 2006 at CERNA, the Center of Industrial Economics of Mines ParisTech. Our team consists of:
François Lévêque, Professor of Law and Economics at Mines ParisTech and Visiting Professor at UC Berkeley
Yann Ménière, Research Fellow at Mines Paris Tech and Université Louvain La Neuve
Henry Delcamp, PhD Student at Mines ParisTech
Justus Baron, PhD Student at Mines ParisTech
Our Research Activities
Patent Law Reform: The chair explores the changing legal and economic environment of the patent system in Europe and evaluates needs and opportunities for reform. The need for an economic analysis of the patent system became apparent during the passionate and often ill informed discussion about important reforms to the patent system in Europe and the US. In the course of our research we have assessed and studied patent reforms in Europe, paying special attention to the London Protocol and the Community Patent. Furthermore, we investigated the effect of patents on innovation and technology transfer.
The research program increasingly focuses on which role patents play in specific technological areas and how the patent system interacts with other institutions that shape technology-intensive industries. Our most recent research concentrates on three particular aspects of the patent system: The interaction between patents and technological standards, open source software and technology transfer.
Technological Standards: Technological standards play an important role in terms of dissemination of innovation, but the more and more aggressive strategies in standard setting organizations can also create difficulties and conflicts that could distort the functioning of these organizations. We have produced theoretical and empirical analysis evaluating firm strategies, industry driven coordination mechanisms and the need for regulation. We developed a series of models to examine the effects on patent-holders and consumers of ex ante announcement of royalties and of the formation of patent pools. Our research increasingly concentrates on providing empirical evidence on driving factors and effects of IPR policies, standard consortia or patent pools.
Technology transfer: It is increasingly recognized that patents play a major role not only in the process of innovation, but also in the transfer and allocation of cutting-edge technologies. Technology transfer has become a widely discussed issue in the context of climate change negotiations. We have carried through empirical research in order to investigate the role of patents in the transfer of climate change mitigating technology, with particular emphasis on the transfer of technology to China. With our work, we contributed directly to the political debate around the climate change negotiations, as we organized side events at the Conferences in Poznan (2008), Bonn, Copenhagen (2009) and Cancun (2010) to present our findings.
Open Source Software: Recent studies show that firms contribute heavily in the development of open source projects. This is unusual as open source software is a community-driven public good, making a commercialization of the software difficult. Despite the abundance of empirical work on the private provision of open source software, very little is known about the implications of corporate provision. We have investigated corporate participation in open source projects. As a first step we provided a comprehensive report on the state-of-the-art economic research on this topic. Furthermore, we performed an empirical study on the productivity of corporate developers in open source projects.
We receive financial support from international high-tech firms, among which are Air Liquide, Microsoft and Philips. We collaborate on a regular basis with researchers at renowned international universities and have engaged in closer cooperation with Professor Knut Blind, Technische Universität Berlin, and Professor Aija Leiponen at Imperial College in London.
List of Publications
Published articles (in English)
Ménière, Y. & S. Parlane “Decentralized licensing of complementary patents: comparing the royalty, fixed-fee and two-part tariff regimes,” Information Economics and Policy, Vol.22, 2010
Dechezleprêtre, A., Glachant, M., Hascic, I., Johnstone, N. & Ménière, Y. “Invention and transfer of climate change mitigation technologies: a study drawing on patent data”, forthcoming in Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Vol. 4, 2010
Lévêque, F. & Y. Ménière “Patents, Antitrust and Standards” Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, 9:1, 2008
Ménière, Y. “Patent Law and Complementary Innovations” European Economic Review, 2008
Ménière, Y. & S. Parlane “R&D Competition in the Shadow of Patent Litigation” forthcoming in Review of Industrial Organization, 2008
Lévêque, F. & Y. Ménière “Copyright versus Patents: the Open Source Software Legal Battle” Review of Economic Research on Copyright Issues, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 21-46, 2007
Lévêque F., “Is Online Music Locked in by Leveraging?” Communications & Strategies, no 63, 2006.
Lévêque F. & Y. Ménière, “Academic Response to the European Commission's Questionnaire on the Patent System in Europe: An Economic Approach” World Patent Information, volume 28(4), 2006.
Published articles (in French)
Lévêque, F. “Régulation de la Pharmacie et Propriété Intellectuelle : la troisième face du triangle” in Concurrence, Santé Publique, Innovation et Médicament, sous la direction de Marie-Anne Frison Roche, Editions Dalloz, 2010
Ménière, Y “Les fonctions économiques de la propriété intellectuelle”, Propriété Industrielle, 2010
Baron, J., Delcamp, H. & Y. Ménière “La notion de « commons »: du logiciel libre aux biotechnologies” forthcoming in Actes du colloques CRID, 2010
Ménière, Y. “L’harmonisation du droit de la propriété intellectuelle: quels gains? Pour qui?” in Remiche et Ruiz-Fabri (éditeurs), Le Commerce International. Entre bi- et multilatéralisme. Editions Larcier, Bruxelles, 2010
Ménière, Y. “Analyse Economique de la Rémunération Supplémentaire des Salariés Inventeurs” forthcoming in Propriété Industrielle, collection Jurisclasseurs, 2009
Brahy, N. & Y. Ménière “Les Organisations Collectives de Droits de Propriété Intellectuelle: une Perspective Néo-institutionnaliste”, Intellectuele rechten Droits intellectuels, 2008 :1.
Lévêque, F. & Y. Ménière “La Normalisation et le Droit de la Concurrence face au Hold-Up” Revue Lamy de la Concurrence, July 2007.
Lévêque, F. “La Décision du TIPCE contre Microsoft: où est passée l’économie? ” Revue Lamy de la Concurrence, June 2007.
Ménière, Y. “Accord ADPIC et Transferts de Technologies” in Remiche B. & J. Kors (Eds) L’accord ADPIC : Dix Ans Après : Regards Croisés Europe-Amérique Latine, Ed. Larcier, 2007.
Lévêque, F. & Y. Ménière “L'urgence de la réforme du système de brevet européen” Problèmes Economiques, 2007, n°2928.
Lévêque, F. & Y. Ménière “La Réforme du Droit des Brevets en Europe: Pourquoi et Comment?” Reflets et Perspectives de la Vie Economique, XLV :4, 2006
Recent working papers and articles under review
Eilhard, J. & Y. Ménière “A Look inside the Forge: Developers’ Productivity and Spillovers in Open Source Projects” submitted to Research Policy
Lévêque, F. & Y. Ménière “Ex Ante Commitments in Standard Setting Organizations” submitted to European Journal of Law and Economics
Lévêque, F. & Y. Ménière “Ex Ante Commitments Help Patent Pool Formation,” submitted to Review of Industrial Organization
Glachant, M. & Y. Ménière “Technology Diffusion with Endogenous Adoption Costs,” submitted to Canadian Journal of Economics
Glachant, M. & Y. Ménière (2010) "Technology Diffusion with Learning Spillovers: Patent versus Free Access", Cerna Working Paper 2010:14
Baron, J. & T. Pohlmann (2010) "Essential Patents and Coordination Mechanisms", Cerna Working Paper 2010:13
De la Tour, A., M. Glachant & Y. Ménière (2010) "Innovation and international technology transfer: The case of the Chinese photovoltaic industry" Cerna Working Paper 2010:12
Baron, J. & H. Delcamp (2010) “Assessing Indicators of Patent Quality: Complex vs Discrete Technologies” Cerna Working Paper 2010:07.
Baron, J. & H. Delcamp (2010) “Strategic Inputs into Patent Pools” Cerna Working Paper 2010 :05.
Delcamp, H. (2010) “Essential Patent in Pools: is Quality Intrinsic or Induced?” Cerna Working Paper 2010:04.
De la Tour, A., Glachant, M., Ménière, Y. (2010) “Beyond Patents: Innovation and Technology Transfers in the Chinese PV Industry” Cerna Working Paper 2010:11.
Dechezleprêtre, A. & Y. Ménière (2010) “Making patent-based indicators suitable for international comparisons: A family affair” Working Paper
Delcamp, H. & Y. Ménière (2010) “Reciprocity in F-RAND licensing” Working Paper
Eilhard, J. (2009) “Loose Contract, Tight Control: Corporate Contributions in Open Source Projects” Working Paper
Recent academic communications
Intertic Conference on Competition in High Tech Markets (Milan, October 10)
Conference of the European Association for Research in Industrial Economics (Istanbul, September 10)
Conference of European Research Academy on Standardization (Lausanne, July 10)
Schumpeter Society Conference (Aalborg, June 10)
CRID Conference (Namur, January 10)
3rd Conference of the Research Network on Innovation and Competition (Vienna, October 09)
Conference of the European Association for Research in Industrial Economics (Ljubljana, September 09)
CRESSE Conference (Crete, July 09)
FLOSS Workshop (Padua, July 09)
Telecom Paris Conference (Paris, June 09)
GAEL Seminar (Grenoble, May 09)
Sorbonne Innovation Seminar (Paris, April 2009)
International Industrial Organization Conference (Boston, April 09)
Seminar of the Copenhagen School of Economics (Copenhagen, March 09)
MERIT Seminar (March 09)
Hitotsubashi Workshop on IP and Standards (Tokyo, February 09)
Recent professional communications
Cancun UN Climate Conference (December 10)
Workshop on IP infringement damages (November 10)
EPO Patent statistics for decision makers 2010 conference (September 10)
Position paper on the revised rules for the assessement of horizontal cooperation agreements under EU competition law (June 10)
French Working group on Patent Finance and Patent Markets (September 09-April 10)
Copenhaguen UN Climate Conference (December 09)
European Competition Law and IP Rights (May 09)
Bonn UN Climate Conference (March 09)
Poznan UN Climate Conference (December 08)
Reports
Eilhard, J. “Open Source Incorporated”, 2009
Dechezleprêtre, A., Glachant, M., Hascic, I., Johnstone, N. & Y. Ménière “Invention and transfer of climate change mitigation technologies: putting numbers on a debated issue”, 2009
Lévêque, F. & Y. Ménière “Intellectual Property and antitrust Law”, 2008
Lévêque, F. & Y. Ménière “Technology Standards, Patents and Antitrust”, 2008
Lévêque, F. & Y. Ménière “Patent & Innovation: Friends or Foes?”, 2007
Ph.D. Thesis
Eilhard, J. (2010) “Tapping into the Source: Corporate Involvement in Open Source Software”
