Patents and Open Innovation

The Cairn.info website reported that many recent studies have highlighted that the patent system might, paradoxically, promote open innovation by stimulating inter-firm collaborations and markets for technology. Indeed, it seems that to open up a firm’s boundaries can be risky, and patents can often help mitigate some of the risks and difficulties associated with open innovation. In other words, patents might provide fences which, in turn, might favor interactions among actors of the innovation process (based on the well-known adage “good fences make good neighbors”). The aim of this paper is to further explore the links between patents and open innovation. We investigate how patents can foster open innovation, and also what are the dangers they entail and what could be done, from a policy perspective, to make sure that patents support open innovation.

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