Trade in Ideas Program Presentation and Discussion at WTO
On Feb 26, 20+ developing and developed countries joined a presentation and discussion of the new Trade in Ideas Program. The program aims at facilitating trade in ideas – based on markets in patent – between “North” and “South” as a new development policy.
Understanding the forces that are at play in such trade is the purpose, in order to inform economic policy, in particular for developing countries. Such policy will then leverage the human capital formation taking place at a breathtaking speed in many developing countries, through markets in patents.
After a presentation of the concept, a discussion was held with the countries present to get a sense of what key issues are today. These issues will be put into the program, by theme. A first follow-on project was announced: Trade in Ideas Statistics Framework planned for 2018.
The event was held at WTO with invitation by Sweden, who also is funding the pilot-study and plan to fund the first follow-on study to the pilot-study reported in another blog entry.
Presentation from event can be found here: WTO Lunch Presentation of Program.
A link to SwedenGeneva and Twitter @SwedenGeneva (March 1).
Please feel free to follow Twitter @EskilUllberg, for updates and news on this program!
Trade in Ideas as New Development Policy: Multi-country Pilot-study funded by Sweden on Economic Potential for Developing Nations Licensing Own Patents
How do can you leverage the recent human capital formation that has taken place in many developing countries in the last two decades?
This pilot-study will investigate the economic potential of markets in patent as instrument of development, leveraging national inventors, licensing to the world markets.
16 countries with high human capital formation, some patenting, royalty licensing and “open access economy”, have been invited to join this pilot. Chile, Azerbaijan and Kenya have now joined and several others are discussing with their governments to join.
A video-workshop will be held with 10+ companies and 2-3 policy making agencies following a survey of the actual terms-of-trade achieved for technology from “the south”. This will be a first indication of the economic potential of such trade between developed and developing nations alike. A level playing field is the goal allowing a third leg of development activity; product, services and ideas, protected by the patent system, creating trade in ideas as new development policy.
The study is funded by Sweden.
Please find enclosed some background information on the study and links to the patent offices in the nations participating in the study. The study began in 2017 and is planned to end by June 2018.
If you are interested in participating in this study please contact at: eskil@ullberg.biz
Presentation of study by Chile’s IP Office
Background Document: Presentation of Pilot Study & Invitation
The Swedish IA Gap&Space for Competitiveness in a Global World
The Swedish IA Gap&Space for Competitiveness in a Global World: Complacency in Economic – Social – Environment agen-das and strategy to inform new policy.
Leif Edvinsson Eskil Ullberg Carol Lin
Final draft for report edited by Sarah Lidé
November 30, 2017
Report: The Swedish IA Gap&Space.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Trade in Ideas as New Development Policy – WTO Trade Dialogue Series June 2017
Presentation of Trade In Ideas as New Development Policy at WTO Trade Dialogue Series in 2017. Eskil Ullberg, Adjunct Professor, George Mason University (full lecture)
IMIT 2017-
Senior Reserach Scholar at the Institute for Management of Innovation and Technology (IMIT) from July 2017-
Two major projects are run within this institute, intimately relate to the Trade In Ideas concept.
Speech at WTO: Trade in Ideas as New Development Policy
Trade Dialogues Lecture Series
As part of its Trade Dialogues Series, the WTO will be inviting leading technical experts to share their insights with WTO members and the broader trade community on important economic and policy developments.
I will be discussing the role of organized markets in facilitating this global trade in ideas as well as the implications for policy making in the area of intellectual property, education, and taxation. The talk will be recorded an available at WTO.org here and on Youtube (2 min short version, full lecture).
Institutions, not only enforcement, key to generating growth through patent market coordination
Why are inventors willing to take more risk in searching for new, more productive technology? This article examines coordination between inventors inventing and innovators in need for and using new patented technology, using an economic experiment.
The results indicate that the institutional arrangements matter more than enforcement in this learning process. In particular increased flexibility in demand side bidding yields higher willingness to search. This has implications on patent trade policy: Both the institutional and enforcement has to be considered in order to get a good selection process of what inventions to further invest in.
Read article for free here or download from Journal of the Knowledge Economy here.
Risk Management and the strategic role of services and IP in today’s economy
How should services be priced? This article outlines five steps towards a service logic driven by changes in IP and deregulation of major economic activities.
Article was published in Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance in 2002 and can be found at Geneva Associations.
Transatlantic workshop on patent markets with EC – key issues discussed
Several fundamental issues were discussed during a one-day trans-atlantic workshop in Brussels on March 3, 2016, with representatives from top patent licensing firms in the world and EU as well as US policy makers. The aim was to identify current and emerging issues in the patent market that could merit further research efforts funded by agencies – and firms – promoting innovation.
– Key topics were (i) incentives to take on the high risks in inventions – mechanisms to manage them -, (ii) basic awareness and knowledge building among politicians, SMEs, academia and general public on the value of inventions and the relation of the patent system as well as (iii) a continued professional dialogue at practitioner and policy level. As one participant commented: “Inventions are important, but we are beginning to loose the [policy] battle”.
– Most importantly the general awareness problem on mechanismsencouraging risk taking, the value of inventions and the patent system merited topics for further investigation and policy discussion.
– Markets in patent (transactions not only protection four) would be such an area that would help firms manage their risks better by providing a broader and deeper market access for patented technologies.
Summary report
A summary report is included with some tentative conclusion and focus for further investigation.
Workshop 2
A follow-up transatlantic workshop is planned, focusing on SME-exchange in patents (with large firms and other SMEs). This workshop is tentatively planned to be in the USA.
for more info, and to follow this project please take a look at https://report.ullberg.biz
Eskil Ullberg, PhD
Documents
Summary report: EC Workshop – How patent market can create growth
Workshop report: Report of discussion with patent market practitioners Brussels, 3 March 2016
Workshop background document: How can patent markets enable growth – State-of-Play 2016
How can Patent Markets Enable Growth? – a Trans-Atlantic Workshop with the European Commission and Vinnova
A transatlantic workshop has been organised together with the European Commission with global corporate practitioners, policymakers from EC/SME & GROWTH and the US Trade Commission, European and other Patent Offices, and selected experts in the field of patenting, licensing among others, to identify and prioritize issues towards a market in patents. Special focus will also be given to SME/individual firms and new markets, especially North-South and emerging markets. The results of the workshop will be considered as input for further studies and policy proposals in this area. The workshop will be held in Brussels on March 3, 2016.
If you are interested in the follow-up information from this event, please contact by email or sign up for the ullberg report. There may also be the opportunity to listen in on a webcast for select interested parties.
Eskil Ullberg, PhD
eskil.ullberg@ullberg.biz
What are the issues?
The international trade flows have changed direction in the last few years, where the South is now the net buyer of the products and services from the North[1]. This has happened thanks to opening of markets, trade negotiations, better economic policies, etc. However, when it comes to technology exchange with patents, the markets are not that developed. An intense focus on enforcement has dominated the discussions, in a one-sided protection agenda, more than trade, creating a litigation market with courts clearing prices. This appears to be similar at national levels between firms, especially large versus SME/individual or rent seeking firms abusing the patent system, hindering efficient trade in ideas between firms. To remedy this deficiency we are organizing a workshop focusing on transactions, in particular the mechanisms for exchange in patented technology. This is not only beneficial for today’s larger firms already engaged in this market but SME/individuals and the new markets, especially the mentioned North-South exchange and emerging markets.
Experimental research on markets in patents indicate that a more impersonal, or open, market in patents with demand side bidding and trading intermediaries may double the use of patented technology in the economy compared to today, i.e. a development in economic efficiency.
The workshop may therefore bring forth valuable input on issues – and priorities – from practitioners, patent offices and EU and US policy makers, on how to facilitate such an open market in patents, aiming at creating a strategic transatlantic initiative to inform policy.
[1] Ref. to Michael Spence in 2010/2011. In GDP terms emerging markets and the developing world are slightly more than 50% of world GDP. GDP growth rate Q3 2015 of emerging markets 4.2% (with China at 6.2%) and developing world 1.6%, indicating that this trend will continue for years if not decades or a century given a population of 6b today compared to 1b of the North. Source: JP Morgan.
[2] See Ullberg, Trade in Ideas (2012) : Chapter 3 (performance and behavioral properties of patent market institutions), 4 (coordination between specialized firms through markets with prices as signaling of technology investments) and 6 (policy conclusions and proposals).
Workshops »
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First Trade in Ideas Training Workshop in cooperation with the WTO Chair Program
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Trade in Ideas Program Presentation and Discussion at WTO
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Trade in Ideas as New Development Policy: Multi-country Pilot-study funded by Sweden on Economic Potential for Developing Nations Licensing Own Patents
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How can Patent Markets Enable Growth? – a Trans-Atlantic Workshop with the European Commission and Vinnova
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