Essays on Intellectual Property: Innovation, Growth and Strategies

Innovation has become one of the most important policy topics in economics as governments around the world have come to recognize that it is through innovation that long-run economic growth can be sustained. Intellectual property rights play an important role as they provide the necessary incentives for individuals and companies to innovate. The objective of this thesis is to provide theoretical and empirical evidence in three distinct areas related to innovation and intellectual property. The first essay presents a model that provides a theoretical basis for the existence of both large firms and fringe entrepreneurs in the same competitive R&D industry that produces patents. The second essay provides evidence that specific measures of patenting provide a better measure than traditional measures of innovation for productivity analysis. The third essay provides evidence on the strategic use of the trade-mark opposition process as a way of increasing cost to potential entrants and thereby creating a potential barrier to entry.