Question

1) Any good and/or bad things for technological spillover between technology-related firms? Type your answer below.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

2) Some companies file to the USPTO too many patents that are not high quality, why they do so? How USPTO can prevent the overpatenting problem if it exists? Type your answer below.

Answer 1

Technological spillover between technology-related firms can lead to following advantages

• It is a source of international finance to developing countries is in the form of FDI as companies which tech knowledge are looking at such countries to set up their hub
• it not only brings capital but also introduces advanced technology that can enhance the technological capability of the host country firms such that it can generate long-term and sustainable economic growth for the host countries.

Part 2.

In the name of patent strategy, organizations try to get a patent over every possible thing that has ever been invented in an attempt to make the maximum out of the investment on the R&D.

With such an ongoing zeal, the patent attorneys or in-house counsels face the pressure to file a lot of patents, that too, under extremely low budget.

Moreover, in a lot of corporations, the management adds the number of patents filed every year as one of the key performance indicator (KPI) for the IP counsels. In an attempt to achieve their target and outrace their peers, quality is often undermined leading to bad patents.

There are two suggestions which if adopted could prevent future occurrences of such low-quality patents:

• KPI of the IP Counsels should change from numbers of patents filed to numbers of star patents filed every year. Such KPIs would not just ensure high-quality patents which could be very useful for defensive strategy but would also bring in revenue for the company.
• Approve budget for patentability searches. These searches cost a fraction of the total cost of a patent, but can end up saving $100k+ in drafting/filing/maintenance costs, making sure that the applications filed are indeed patentable subject matter, which could be monetized without the fear of being invalidated.