Research

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Patent Fees and Legal Status among SMEs: Evidence from the America Invents Act

I examine how the introduction of lower patent fees for micro entities has affected the outcome of applications filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. I exploit the America Invents Act as a natural experiment to conduct a matched difference-in-difference estimation based on a sample of applications filed by small and micro entities between 2010 and 2014. I find that, post-reform, micro entities significantly reduced the quality of their applications and were 37.36 percentage points less likely to be granted a patent. By retrospectively examining the effects of lower fees on micro entities, this research aims to draw practical implications for the design of future statutory fees.

Evolution in the Wine Industry: A Patent Mining Approach

Using public data on patents published between 1893 and 2023, I study how the wine industry has evolved over time. Throughout, I leverage textual analysis to build an index of patent quality and use it to evaluate breakthrough innovations. Based on this evidence, I assess how the staggered enforcement of the Patent Cooperation Treaty has influenced technological similarity across countries. The findings speaks to the validity of the current patent system, highlighting some of its shortcomings. Looking at wine through the lenses of patent data may provide a richer sense of context and an improved understanding of current industry trends.