Languages, Fees and the International Scope of Patenting

Recent developments in patenting activity are the subject of a growing literature. Existing research contributes to a better understanding of the incentives that drive economic agents to rely on the patent system (e.g. Cohen et al., 2000; Arundel, 2001; Blind et al., 2006; Peeters and van Pottelsberghe, 2006; von Graevenitz et al., 2013) and on potential implications of their behaviour for the effectiveness of the patent system. Lately, a number of researchers have started to explore the design of the patent system itself, i.e. the role of fees and costs of patenting (Archontopoulos et al., 2007; Harhoff et al., 2009; de Rassenfosse and van Pottelsberghe, 2013), the duration of examination (Thomas, 2010; Harhoff, 2011), as well as patent office governance and management (Friebel et al., 2006).