Social Science Research Notes, 2006-01-16, Research on Intellectual Property
Digital Bowlderizing: Removing the Naughty Bytes - Llewellyn J. Gibbons, Michigan State Law Review, Vol. 167, 2005
During the Victorian era, the prevailing delicacy of the age inspired Dr. Thomas Bowdler and his sister to edit Shakespeare's plays to make them suitable for 'family reading'. All off-color jokes and sexual matter were removed. The word bowdlerize entered the language as a synonym for militant prudery. Luckily for Dr. Bowdler and his sister, the works of Shakespeare were clearly in the public domain. The modern Dr. Bowdlers and their accomplices do not share Dr. Bowdler's luck, however. When they abridge modern digital works to remove content that is offensive to the conscience of their constituencies, their reward for this public service is allegations of, and possible liability for, copyright infringement.
Patenting and Research and Development: A Global View - World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 3739
Using a new global data base on patents and innovation inputs, the authors examine the process of knowledge creation measured by the dynamic relationship between research and development and U.S. patents granted. They confirm at the country level the recurrent micro-level finding of a strong relationship between the two and estimate the OECD elasticity to be effectively equal to one. This conflicts with the frequent micro-level finding of strongly diminishing returns in knowledge generation and suggests the importance of knowledge spillover effects measurable only at the aggregate level. Developing countries, however, do show diminishing returns. The authors then explain the differences in spillovers between the OECD and developing countries by testing for the impact of measures of the functioning of the national innovation system - the set of institutions and agents that create and disseminate knowledge.