Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP5283
Authors: Dietmar Harhoff; Stefan Wagner
Abstract: We analyze the duration of patent examination at the European Patent Office (EPO). Our data contain variables that are correlates of the applicants? and examiners? assessments of a patent?s economic and technical relevance as well as ex post-application citation measures which indicate the impact of the patent application on the state of the art. We present descriptive statistics for 30 majortechnology fields. In our multivariate analysis we estimate competing risk specifications in order to characterize differences in the processes leading to either a withdrawal of the application by the applicant, a refusal of the patent grant or an actual patent grant by the European Patent Office. Measuring a patent?s importance relying on the number of citations by subsequent patents we find that more important patents are approved faster by the EPO than less important patents but that applicants are more hesitant to withdraw these potentially valuable applications
Keywords: European Patent Office; Patent Examination; Patents; Survival Analysis
JEL Codes: C15; C41; D73; O34
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| complexity of patent applications (O34) | duration of patent examination (O34) |
| workload per examiner (C91) | duration of patent examination (O34) |
| number of forward citations (A14) | duration of patent examination (O34) |
| type X references (Y20) | duration of patent examination (O34) |
| type X references (Y20) | earlier withdrawals (J26) |