Publications

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1 Jan 1999
Conference Presentation

Technological Evolution as a Complex Adaptive System: Evidence from Patent Data

Keywords: Information Technology; Complexity; Patents

March 2018 (Revised April 2018)
Supplement

1366 Technologies: Scaling the Venture (B)

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and Ramana Nanda

It was March 2018. Should proposed U.S. solar tariffs keep U.S.-based 1366 CEO Frank van Mierlo from starting up his 1st full-scale manufacturing plant overseas? View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Finance; Intellectual Property; Trade; Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Energy Industry; United States; China; Korean Peninsula

February 2006 (Revised June 2007)
Case

Atheros Communications

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Lauren Barley

Managers at Atheros, a leading provider of wireless local area network chipsets, must decide whether to join a special interest group (SIG) proposed by Intel to end an impasse over standards for the 802.11n (11n), the next generation of "Wi-Fi" technology. Two factions... View Details

Keywords: Intellectual Property; Standards; Wireless Technology; Semiconductor Industry; United States

January 2002
Article

Putting Patents in Context: Exploring Knowledge Transfer from MIT

By: Ajay Agrawal and Rebecca M. Henderson

Keywords: Patents; Knowledge Sharing

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December 2012
Teaching Note

Gene Patents (A) (TN)

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Matthew Preble

This is the teaching note for case Gene Patents (A). In March 2010, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Sweet overturned 30 years of legal precedent and ruled that unaltered human genes could not be patented. This case reviews patent law and how it relates to our... View Details

Keywords: Biotech; Human Genome; Patents; Genetics; Biotechnology Industry; United States

April 2017
Case

The Future of Patent Examination at the USPTO

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury, Tarun Khanna and Sarah Mehta

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is the federal government agency responsible for evaluating and granting patents and trademarks. In 2015, the USPTO employed approximately 8,000 patent examiners who granted nearly 300,000 patents to inventors. As of April... View Details

Keywords: Machine Learning; Telework; Collaborating With Unions; Human Resources; Recruitment; Retention; Intellectual Property; Copyright; Patents; Trademarks; Knowledge Sharing; Technology Adoption; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Productivity; Performance Improvement; District of Columbia

September 2017
Case

Give Us a 'C'! Killing Knock-offs with Copyright?

By: Lena G. Goldberg

Varsity Brands, the leading manufacturer of cheerleading uniforms in the United States, obtained copyright protection for certain designs of stripes, chevrons, color blocks and lines on cheerleading uniforms. Star Athletica, a newcomer in the field, used those designs... View Details

Keywords: Intellectual Property; Law; Lawsuits and Litigation; Design; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Fashion Industry

November 2010
Article

The Litigation of Financial Innovations

By: Josh Lerner

This paper examines the litigation of patents relating to financial products and services. I show that these grants are being litigated at a rate 27 to 39 times greater than that of patents as a whole. The patents being litigated are disproportionately those issued to... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Lawsuits and Litigation; Finance

Mar 2012
Article

Reviving Entrepreneurship

New enterprises don't exist in a vacuum: They rise or fall depending on myriad contextual factors, all of them interrelated, and all of them affected by government policy. U.S. lawmakers must carefully consider the effects of interventions in at least 12 areas, ranging... View Details

November 2016
Supplement

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals: Building Value from the IP Estate (B)

By: Vicki Sato, Willy Shih and Matt Higgins

The leader of a pioneering biotech company in the siRNA space weighs his options for scaling production capacity in advance of an anticipated commercial launch. Operational complexity and relative merits of in-house manufacturing versus a contractor model are... View Details

Keywords: Pharmaceutical Companies; Pharmaceutical Industry; Biotech; Biotechnology; Operational Complexity; Strategy; Manufacturing; Production; Strategic Planning; Intellectual Property; Biotechnology Industry; United States

2015
Working Paper

Public R&D Investments and Private-sector Patenting: Evidence from NIH Funding Rules

By: Pierre Azoulay, Joshua S. Graff Zivin, Danielle Li and Bhaven N. Sampat

We quantify the impact of scientific grant funding at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on patenting by pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms. Our paper makes two contributions. First, we use newly constructed bibliometric data to develop a method for flexibly... View Details

Keywords: Economics Of Science; Patenting; Academic Reserach; NIH; Knowledge Spillovers; Patents; Research; Government and Politics

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2004
Book

Innovation and Its Discontents: How Our Broken Patent System Is Endangering Innovation and Progress, and What To Do About It

By: Adam Jaffe and Josh Lerner

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Patents; System

19 May 2016
Research Event

Crowdsourcing, Patent Trolls, and Other Research Insights Highlighted at Harvard Business School Symposium

for alleged patent violations, and it seems they do so regardless of whether patents were infringed on or not. NPEs are well aware that with intellectual property, the idea space is nebulous—which can lead to ambiguity that needs to be... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman & Carmen Nobel

Working Paper

The Composition and Dynamics of Technology-Enabled Entrepreneurship

By: Innessa Colaiacovo, Daniel P. Gross and Jorge Guzman

Using data on nearly all U.S. business registrations since the turn of the twentieth century, and a set of 386 major technologies invented over this period, we study the level, composition, and dynamics of entrepreneurial activity around new technology. We find a... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention; Patents; Technology Industry

SSRN

2020
Working Paper

Digitization and the Demand for Physical Works: Evidence from the Google Books Project

By: Abhishek Nagaraj and Imke Reimers

The digital era promised to deliver a centralized repository of all pre-existing knowledge through mass digitization. However, concerns about cannibalizing demand for physical works have led publishers and authors to block the realization of this vision. We investigate... View Details

Keywords: Digitization; Copyright; Books

SSRN

November 17, 2009
Editorial

Inventing a Better Patent System

By: Robert C. Pozen

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Patents; System

January 2007
Background Note

Note on Biotech Business Development

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Robert F. Higgins

Describes the business development process in biotechnology companies. Topics covered include: participants in the licensing process and their interests, the major steps in the licensing process, the terms that are part of most agreements, and the most contentious... View Details

Keywords: Agreements and Arrangements; Entrepreneurship; Intellectual Property; Biotechnology Industry