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Background Context: The Physician Payments Sunshine Act requires manufacturers of drugs, medical devices, medical supplies, and biologics to record all financial relationships with physicians in the Open Payments database with the goal of increasing transparency for patients and the general public. The majority of total money going to orthopedic surgeons has been found to go to a small number of surgeons in the form of royalties and licensing payments. This category of payment is intended to compensate physicians for use of their intellectual property. However, little research has been done to investigate the degree to which these physicians own intellectual property.Purpose: To the authors' knowledge, the association between patents and industry payments to orthopedic surgeons has not been explored. We quantify the association between the patents and academic productivity of orthopedic spine surgeons and the amount of royalty and licensing fees they receive. We then compared this with the associations observed for other categories of payments.Study Design: Cross-sectional study METHODS: Top royalty and licensing earners, defined as those who collectively earned 50% of all royalty and licensing payments over the period August 2013-December 2018, were identified. The h-index, publication count, and patent count of this group were compared with top earners of other payment categories using the Mann-Whitney U test. The association between (1) earnings and patent counts, (2) earnings and manuscript counts, and (3) earnings and h-index among the top royalty and licensing earners was assessed using Spearman correlation.Results: Top royalty and licensing earners had significantly more patents than every comparison group except the top earners of money derived from ownership in a biomedical company. For this one exception, there was a trend toward the top eight royalty and licensing earners having more patents (p=.054). The top royalty and licensing earners had significantly more manuscripts than three of the five comparison groups and significantly higher h-indices than four of the five comparison groups. Among the top royalty and licensing earners, receiving more royalty and licensing payments was associated with holding more patents, but not with publishing more papers or having higher h-indices.Conclusions: There is a strong association between the number of patents authored by individual orthopedic spine surgeons and the amount of royalty and licensing fees they receive from industry. This supports the hypothesis that these payments serve as compensation to inventor-surgeons for their intellectual property.Clinical Significance: Our findings provide new, important context for the largest category of industry payments to orthopedic spine surgeons and suggests that physicians' patents should be considered when evaluating financial transactions between industry and physicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • We use dynamic panel regression analysis for 70 countries from 1965–2009. • We find that patent rights have no effect on productivity growth. • We offer an alternative explanation, finding the ECI positive and significant. • Our results lend evidence that patent rights are insufficient for the inducement of productivity. • We argue it is not discovery that increases productivity, but the ability to adapt. Abstract Does the rigorous protection of patents advance or retard economic development? Two decades ago, a new global standard of intellectual property swept across developing and industrialized nations through the implementation of the WTO's TRIPS Agreement. Many years later, the issue of patent rights remains contentious. In this paper, we focus on the effects of patent rights systems on total factor productivity growth, using dynamic panel regression analysis for 70 countries from 1965 to 2009. We show that the effects of stronger or more rigorous patent systems are insignificant for productivity growth in both developing and industrialized countries. Why does the strength of patents appear to have no impact on productivity? Classic economic theory suggests that stronger patent systems incentive innovative output with important spill-over effects for productivity and growth. We offer an alternative explanation using data from the Economic Complexity Index. We find that while patents rights are increasingly irrelevant to productivity, the relationship between economic complexity and productivity is highly positive and significant. Our results are consistent with the contributions of the absorptive capacity theory in that they suggest it is not the discovery and ownership of novel products and processes at the innovative frontier that induces productive growth, but the ability to adapt, replicate and diffuse along the international productive chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper will focus on the recent development of the Chinese IP abuse legislation and its potential impact on IP protection and the operation of technology-driven foreign enterprises in China. Firstly, it will provide a brief overview of the TRIPS''s requirements on IPR abuse and technology transfer, and the recent development of IP abuse laws at the domestic level, particularly in the US and the EC. Secondly, by drawing a comparison with similar laws in the US and the EC, this paper will critically examine the recent development of the Chinese laws regarding technology transfer and IP abuse prevention, including both the recently enacted Anti-Monopoly Law 2008 (AML) and other prior-AML regulations. Thirdly, the paper will examine both opportunities and potential risks these laws may bring to foreign IP holders/technology-driven companies when operating in China, particularly focusing on the impact of the IP-related provision in the AML. Recent development in antitrust litigation in which Microsoft is a party, including the recent anti-monopoly investigation against Microsoft in China, will also be examined. Lastly, it will provide some practical suggestions for foreign IP holders and technology-driven companies to operate in China, such as useful defences against potential IP abuse claims, and other strategies for flexibly applying the IP abuse rules and better participating in future IP abuse legislative process in China. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper examines the concept of copyright as an intellectual property in the digital age and the utilitarian objective which an intellectual property seeks to achieve. In that respect ‘fair use’ as a concept of U.S. copyright law has been critically analysed. An ongoing Court battle involving the dispute between Google and the Author''s Guild & Publishers has been examined and an attempt has been made to justify the act of Google under the fair use doctrine. At the heart of the work, one shall be able to appreciate the pressing need for the copyright laws to be rewritten for the digital age. Recourse has been made to numerous case law to appreciate the concept of fair use and this paper concludes by holding Google''s project of digitizing copyrighted books as ‘fair’ as it fulfills the primary aim of copyright law which is “encouragement of learning” and “dissemination of knowledge”. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper uses innovation strengths indicators based on patents lodged at the US Patent and Trademark Office from 1975 to 2002: (i) to analyse trends in the patenting of pollution prevention and abatement (or anti-pollution) technologies in the USA; and (ii) to provide international rankings for the development of anti-pollution technologies. As the indicators are not directly measurable, accurate approximations are used, namely patent shares for international presence, the technological specialisation index for national priorities, and the rate of assigned patents for potential economic benefits. The findings of the paper demonstrate the clear advantage Japan and France have out of the group of the top 12 foreign countries patenting in the USA. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Ecological patents have been increasing steadily over time. This paper analyses trends and volatility in ecological patents in the USA from 1975 to 1997. Germany contributed more than 10% of the total US ecological patents, and is by far the strongest foreign performer. This paper estimates a set of novel regime-switching models to investigate the time-varying nature of the conditional mean, as well as the conditional variance of the patent ratio, namely the ratio of US ecological patents to total US patents, using monthly data from January 1975 to December 1997. The regime-switching LSTAR-GARCH model is found to be optimal for modelling the ecological patent ratio. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Numerous studies have shown that our knowledge of the scope of patent activity and patent technology distribution in a developing country like China is inadequate. Literature searches indicate that there are papers on patent activities and international competitiveness in major developed countries. However, the majority of these researches were not based on the International Patent Classification (IPC) System analysis, only a few have applied IPC as a research tool.This paper describes a study of patent activities of US organizations in China. The researchers of the study employed the IPC system, conducted searches on several Chinese patent databases and undertook a technology assessment using 118 IPC classes to examine the distribution of US origin patent applications in China in various technological fields. The findings from this study have provided a clearer picture and better understanding of the US patenting activities in China.The results of the technology distribution of US origin patent applications in China, together with the top ten IPC classes of US origin applications and the top 20 US organizations that filed most patent applications in China from April 1985 to March 1999 are presented. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study reports the results of a survey completed by 155 university foreign language (FL) directors in the United States (US) during Fall 2012. Survey respondents come from a variety of institutions and direct a range of FL programs. The objectives of the study are to (a) determine what FL directors know about open educational resources (OER), (b) understand respondents' perceived benefits and challenges of using OER, and (c) determine what resources and support are critical to establish or expand the use of OER in FL courses in the US. Results indicate that while 66% of FL directors do not recognize the term OER, many are in fact utilizing them. Those who incorporate OER in their FL courses state they do so to go beyond what is offered in traditional, print-based textbooks suggesting that OER represent more authentic and relevant content. While few (26%) respondents indicate intellectual property concerns, many note challenges such as finding OER at the appropriate level for students, time involved in creating and using OER, and training others (e.g., teaching assistants) how to use technology-oriented OER. The paper concludes by highlighting additional training and resources to more completely and successfully incorporate OER into FL curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the economic incentives for medical procedure innovation. Using a proprietary dataset on billing code applications for emerging medical procedures, we highlight two mechanisms that could hinder innovation. First, the administrative hurdle of securing permanent, reimbursable billing codes substantially delays innovation diffusion. We find that Medicare utilization of innovative procedures increases nearly nine-fold after the billing codes are promoted to permanent (reimbursable) from provisional (non-reimbursable). However, only 29 percent of the provisional codes are promoted within the five-year probation period. Second, medical procedures lack intellectual property rights, especially those without patented devices. When appropriability is limited, specialty medical societies lead the applications for billing codes. We indicate that the ad hoc process for securing billing codes for procedure innovations creates uncertainty about both the development process and the allocation and enforceability of property rights. This stands in stark contrast to the more deliberate regulatory oversight for pharmaceutical innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Open Source Software (OSS) has become an important alternative method of organizing the production of software and has gained in popularity and use because of its benefits and costs relative to the dominant proprietary software model. In this paper, I use evidence from the United States and Canada to examine the distribution of these benefits and costs. I argue that although the rhetoric surrounding OSS is supported empirically, the benefits of OSS have been limited because of the way this technological project has evolved within its associated policy environment. That is, although ostensibly neutral, the policies and laws of both the U.S. and Canadian governments have tended to be positioned implicitly against the use of OSS both in the public sector and in the economy generally. In addition, OSS use and development requires a set of skills that are absent in many instances or create prohibitively high costs. Thus OSS is typically used by larger organizations, and its development is restricted to a mostly male, highly educated, high-income group of contributors. Therefore while the benefits of OSS are real, the distribution of these benefits is skewed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The 1998 enactment of the anticircumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the United States amended the Copyright Act to prohibit disabling or circumventing technical protection of copyrighted works. Consequently, over the last decade, the development of copyright law has been inextricably intertwined with the development of “digital rights management” (DRM) systems, intended to protect digital content, and the laws that were intended to safeguard DRM systems. In this paper, I review the interconnection of copyright and DRM, arguing that DRM constitutes a conscious attempt to re-impose upon digital works the material exclusion that has been lost through digitization. Pre-determined material affordances are re-inscribed on digital content through discursive DRM technology. DRM imposes pre-determination of use and access on creative works, which is reinforced by anticircumvention laws. Pre-determination, however, imposes unexpected constraints on the use of creative works, limiting the prospects for creative interaction with secured texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canadian Patent Policy and practice evolved under the influence of British and American policy and practice. In 1989 Canada entered into a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States and the Canadian Patent Act was updated to reflect international patent practice. In 1992 the TechSource project was started in order to automate Canadian Patent operations in harmony with Trilateral (US, EPO, and Japan) automation projects, and disseminate patent information to Canadian Industry. The TechSource system (2000) has reduced the use of paper to process patent applications and improved access to patent information in Canada. While Canadian use of patents has increased since 1980, the use of TechSource patent information has been less than originally forecasted. The TechSource (2000) system will need to be upgraded and modernized in order to be able to: interface with newer international patent processes, replace outdated technology and reduce operating costs. There are opportunities available to reduce future Canadian patenting and TechSource costs. More public education will be needed to increase the use of patent information in Canada. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Patent analysts predict trends in research and the business environment by studying the numbers and classifications of patents issued to companies around the world. Those attempts are often affected by the changes taking place in international treaties, governments, patent laws, patent classification systems, and corporate mergers and acquisitions. This paper describes some of the changes in the patent information environment that have disrupted the trends predicted by patent analyses in the past. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In April 2004 the EU passed the Directive on Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights amidst charges of “conflicting interest” and heavy-handed influence of the American entertainment industry. The Directive has received widespread condemnation from various sectors of the society for supporting private interest at the expense of public interest through the impositions of Mareva injunctions and Anton Piller Orders, even in instances of accidental and non-commercial infringements of the intellectual property right [Meller P. EU backs deal on copyright piracy. International Herald Tribune, NY; 2004]. This paper will examine the provisions of the Directive and determine its implications, in particular, as to whether they balance or not the rights of the right holders and public interest. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Patent registrations have often been used as a proxy of innovation as they reflect a country''s technological capability. Recently, some studies have found that the Generalised Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (GARCH) model and an asymmetric extension, namely Glosten, Jagannathan and Runkle''s (GJR) model, are useful to model the time-varying volatility of the patent ratio, namely the ratio of foreign patents registered in the USA to total patents in the USA. However, this approach assumes that the conditional variance is independent across countries. Furthermore, the time series properties of the patent growth rate, namely the rate of change of foreign patents registered in the USA, have not previously been analysed. This paper examines the conditional variance of the patent growth rate from the leading four foreign countries, namely Canada, France, Germany and Japan, using the Constant Conditional Correlation – Multivariate GARCH (CCC-MGARCH), Vector Autoregressive Moving Average – GARCH (VARMA-GARCH) and VARMA – Asymmetric GARCH (VARMA-AGARCH) models. The results reveal the existence of cross-countries effects in the patent growth rate among the leading four countries, as well as asymmetric effects using monthly data from January 1975 to December 1998. Rolling estimates show that the restrictive assumption of constant conditional correlation is unlikely to hold, and models that accommodate dynamic conditional correlations may provide greater insights for investigating the effects of global factors on changes in innovation for the four leading foreign countries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]