Calls for papers

 

International Journal of Intellectual Property Management

 

Special Issue on: "Economic Development, Technology Growth and Protection of Intellectual Properties"

Guest Editor: Swapan K. Bhattacharya, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), Japan

Economic growth of a country is measured by the amount of wealth it has created over the years. Though stock of physical wealth has been treated as the main yardstick of evaluating any country’s level of development, importance of intangible wealth has been gaining prominence in recent years. A country’s economic development is also measured by its level of technological progress achieved over the years. The recent worldwide trend is that the value of intangible wealth has been growing much faster than the tangible wealth.

Intangible wealth is highly knowledge-based, depending on the level of inventions and new ideas emanated from human beings over the generations. The transformation of future society into a knowledge-based society depends on how much knowledge one can generate and to what extent this knowledge can be disseminated. It is rational to argue that inventions and innovations can be promoted only when they are well protected through protection of intellectual properties.

Technological progress of any country depends on the level of inventions, which in turn depends on the level of protection available to the intellectual properties in the form of patents and other forms of protection. Apart from protection of intellectual properties, adequate level of investment is needed for new inventions in frontier research. It is a priori as well as empirically true that country’s technological progress depends on the level of investment made on research and development (R&D). Therefore, there is a strong correlation between economic development, technological progress, level of expenditure on R&D and the level of protection available to intellectual properties.

Although there are several studies available in this area, they are scattered over a range of journals. It is in this context that the contribution of this special issue will be to collect excellent papers from experts and deliver to the interested readers through a single source.

Contributions are solicited from scholars, academicians and faculty of universities engaged in research on different economic dimensions of intellectual properties encompassing patents, copyrights, design and layout, trade and service marks, trade secrets etc. The papers should be both theoretical as well as empirical in nature. Strong encouragement will be given to the studies estimating the economic benefits of patents and other forms of protection of intellectual properties and the proofs of theoretical abstractions. Studies should be at the macro level as well as different sectors of the economy, viz. drugs and pharmaceuticals, agro-chemicals, biotech industry, computer software and different areas of cultural industry, e.g. songs and music, films, books and publications etc.

The purpose of this special issue is to elicit research on the impact of patent protection on the prices of products, especially to what extent prices of commodities will be increased due to different level of protection both in form of product as well as process. How will increase in prices encourage investment, especially R&D expenditure for inventing new features of products, and ensure competition rather than monopoly profit due to market imperfections? Another objective of this special issue is to examine the policy options for the developing countries which had not granted product patents prior to 2005.

Subject Coverage
Research questions to be examined in this issue include the following list, which is not exhaustive :

• What are the linkages between economic development, technological progress and protection of intellectual properties?
• How does protection of intellectual properties encourage inventions and thus promote investment on R&D?
• What is the impact of protection on prices of the products both in goods and services? How much will be the increase in price due to patents both at the aggregate as well as at the sectoral level?
• Does protection lead to monopoly or encourages competition by encouraging more investment flows into the sectors?
• How to develop a macro-econometric model incorporating parameters like GDP growth, technical progress, investment, level of innovations and protection of intellectual properties both at the time series as well as cross section basis?
• Inter-linkages between industrial growth and patent protection.
• Whether and to what extent cost of public health services will be increased due to patent protection
• Whether patent can be used as an engine of economic growth in the developing countries
• What should be the optimum level of protection (both theoretically as well as empirically)?

We are interested in papers, which cover, but not limited to, the following areas:

• Patents
• Copyrights
• Trade & service marks
• Industrial designs
• Integrated circuits
• Geographical indications
• Trade secrets

Notes for Prospective Authors

Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere

All papers are refereed through a peer review process. A guide for authors, sample copies and other relevant information for submitting papers are available on the Author Guidelines page

Important Dates

Deadline for Paper Submissions: 31 October 2007

Deadline for Review: 31 December 2007

Notification of Acceptance: 31 January 2008

Deadline of Revised Papers: 31 March 2008

Final Decisions: 31 May 2008