EPO Publishes Helpful Presentations From September Program

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the European Patent Office recently held a conference on Sept. 3-4 in Vienna, titled "Patent Statistics for Decision Makers" that addressed issues such as patent valuation, patent strategies, business dynamics, and technology markets.

The EPO has been kind enough to make many of the presentations available for download (link), and all of them are worth a read. Some of the papers include:

• Ciaran McGinley, Controller, EPO, "Shining a Light" (link), arguing that the situation with patents is akin to global warming

• Roger J. Burt (Senior Counsel, Intellectual Property Law, IBM Europe): Patent strategies? Just-in-case;

• Nils Omland (WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management): The use of patent data to measure patent value: an overview;

• Jun Suzuki (National Graduate Institute For Policy Studies) [Authors: A. Goto (Japan Fair Trade Comission), K. Motohashi (University of Tokyo), Y. Naito (Artificial Life Laboratory), J. Suzuki, S. Tamada (Kansei Gakuin University and RIETI)]: Patent citations in Japan: database construction for inventor and examiner citations;

• Hugo Pillu (ERASME, Ecole Centrale Paris): Measure of international knowledge flows thorough input-based patent citation indicator;

• Alessandro Sterlacchini [Authors: F. Schettino, A. Sterlacchini, F. Venturini (Universita Politecnica delle Marche)]: Inventive productivity and patent quality: evidence from Italian inventors;

• Bart Leten [Authors: R. Belderbos, S. Kelchtermans, B. Leten (KU Leuven)]: Usage of, or involvement in science: what matters for firm technological performance?; and

• Peter Hingley (European Patent Office) [Authors: S. Bas (LMU Munich), P. Hingley]: Number and sizes of applicants at the EPO.