TY  - JOUR
AU  - Aoki, Reiko
AU  - Prusa, Thomas J
TI  - Product Development and the Timing of Information Disclosure under U.S.and Japanese Patent Systems
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 5063
PY  - 1995
Y2  - March 1995
DO  - 10.3386/w5063
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w5063
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w5063.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Reiko Aoki
Hitotsubashi University
E-Mail: aokirei@ier.hit-u.ac.jp

Thomas J. Prusa
Department of Economics
New Jersey Hall
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1248
Tel: 908.443.1565
E-Mail: prusa@econ.rutgers.edu
AB  - This paper examines the consequences of the differences in the timing of information disclosure between the U.S. and Japanese patent systems.  Under the Japanese system it is possible for a firm to apply for a patent knowing the exact specifications of a rival's patent application.  In contrast, in the U.S. the only way a firm learns about a rival's innovation is upon the actual granting of the rival's patent.  We argue that this difference enables Japanese firms to coordinate their R&D efforts better than their U.S. counterparts and that this, in turn, leads to smaller quality improvements under the Japanese system.  We show that the creation/diffusion tradeoff of patents can be influenced not only by the scope and length of patent protection but also by other features of the patenting process.
ER  -