Charles de Grazia (Ecole de Management Léonard De Vinci) will present his paper “Challenges facing self-reliant inventors: Do patents help?,” co-authored with N. Pairolero, A. Toole, P.A. Pappas, and M. Teodorescu.
Abstract: States Patent and Trademark Office’s first randomized controlled trial designed to assist pro se applicants during patent prosecution. We find that randomly assigned assistance increases the probability of patent grant by approximately 25 percent. We estimate the causal effect of patent receipt on subsequent inventive activity among self-reliant inventors and show that receiving a patent significantly increases the likelihood of continued inventive participation for both pro se and independent inventors. Exploring mechanisms, we find that patent receipt facilitates engagement in markets for technology, including the sale of patent rights, which in turn supports sustained invention. Together, these findings indicate that targeted initiatives within public agencies can improve downstream innovation outcomes and underscores the importance of technology markets for sustaining self-reliant inventors.
Link to the RITM Economics seminar web page