One method that has interested us is the use of "invention activities".
By encouraging the inventor to disclose innovative knowledge, while simultaneously holding the rights to protect follow-on uses of inventions, patents avoid underinvestment in costly but socially beneficiary research and development activities, while also preventing the detrimental withholding of knowledge (Wendt and Izquierdo [2001]).
Failure to provide adequate descriptions and uses of invention or if invention is deemed legally inadequate.
When the data are normalized to the number of invention disclosures per institution, UK appears to be making good use of the inventions that are disclosed to them.
Sir Richard Arkwright, making use of earlier inventions, produced a better machine, capable of making stronger yarn than Hargreaves's jenny.
In practice, however, in America, where such patents are routinely granted, companies have allowed free use of their inventions for research purposes, demanding payment only if commercial use is made of them.
The Redmond-based firm added that it had itself paid out more than £2.6bn ($4bn) over the past decade to cover its use of others' inventions.
"We'd rather that other companies respect our intellectual property and compete using their own innovations, but as these actions show, we will not tolerate the unauthorized use of our inventions".
The Japanese company is actively seeking patent royalties and a court order to prevent further use of its inventions, according to the complaint filed a couple of days ago in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware.
The value estimates however are considerably lower than recent survey estimates with most of the patents having little or no realized value, suggesting that the returns appropriated through the use of an invention may represent only a fraction of the value of a patented invention.
