Intellectual Property Rights and Intangible Investments

• Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation Incentives for Firms
• Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights
• Intangible Investments
• Markets for Technology
• Global Developments of Intangible Investments and Patent Application

Researchers in this area investigate measures designed to safeguard revenues from investments in technology and new goods and services. Their research focusses on patents and trademarks, i.e. industrial property rights granted to technology providers. In this regard, the incentives and impediments established through various property rights regimes are analysed in collaboration with legal scholars. The Department identifies those market characteristics that obstruct the optimum parity between inventor protection and technological diffusion, and develops proposals to help structure knowledge and technology markets. A further important question is why patent offices are taking longer and longer to grant patents and whether the process could be fast-tracked using patent prosecution highways (PPH).