Passing the European Patent Office: evidence from the data processing industry

This explorative paper investigates how firms in the global data-processing industry that seek patent protection for their innovations in Europe have coped with the patentability requirements of the European Patent Office. Starting from a continuous research spectrum with basic research on the one extreme and development on the other, the main hypothesis is as follows: firms that carry out more basic research are more successful in passing the patent office than firms that focus more on development. Basic research explores more novel and unknown technical paths, while development aims more at modifying and redesigning existing products. Therefore, the results from more basic-oriented research are expected to fulfill the patentability requirements relatively more often than the results from development. This hypothesis is tested and largely confirmed for the global data-processing industry (with a sample of 44 firms) in the period 1986–1990, using indirect variables for basic research and development.