Economics of Intellectual Property in Telecommunications

Telecommunications companies patent heavily. Table X below shows total 2007 patenting activity for leading system operators and equipment companies compared to a sample of other fields. However, patents are seen as the most important means of protecting or monetizing innovations. In fact, in Cohen, Nelson, and Walsh's cannonical cross-industry study of patenting behavior, telecommunications industry respondents characterized patents as the least effective of the several specific surveyed means of appropriating value from new innovations, scoring behind lead time, secrecy, complementary sales, and complementary manufacturing. (Cohen, et al. 2000, at Table 1) Patents scored low accross the all industries, but telecommunications stood out even in the context of this general finding: the importance of patents was rated as far lower in telecommunications than in the cross-industry mean. Table X reproduces these data with comparisons to selected other industries.

• [patenting activity table]
• [patenting importance table]

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