IP Outreach Research > IP Use and Awareness
Reference
| Title: | Innovative Exporters and Intellectual Property Regimes in Selected Service Industries: Evidence from the Canadian Survey of Innovation 2003 |
| Author: | Frances Anderson [Statistics Canada] and Ingrid Schenk [Industry Canada] |
| Source: | Statistics Canada |
| Year: | 2008 |
Details
| Subject/Type: | IP Protection |
| Focus: | Commercialisation |
| Country/Territory: | Canada |
| Objective: | To identify the relationship between innovation and intellectual property protection in service firms, and, in particular, to examine the relationship between intellectual property rights and firm performance in two dynamic service industry sectors (Information and Communications Technologies; Selected Professional Scientific and Technical Services). |
| Sample: | 1100+ innovative exporting firms from two service industry sectors |
| Methodology: | Survey |
Main Findings
The study found that significant differences exist between innovative exporters using formal intellectual property (IP) regimes (i.e. compositions of formal IP protection mechanisms including patents, trademarks and industrial designs; or combinations of formal protection mechanisms and informal ones) and those using informal IP regimes (i.e. compositions of informal IP protection mechanisms only, such as secrecy, complexity of design and lead-time advantage on competitors).
Large innovative exporters in the "information and communication technologies" (ICT) sector are more likely to have a formal intellectual property regime, as opposed to an informal one. By contrast, in the selected "professional, scientific and technical services" (PST) sector, firm size has no connection with use of a formal or informal IP regime. There is no link between the country of control and the type of IP regime used in either sector. ICT exporters with formal IP regimes tend to have more important human capital assets (as measured by both university graduates and research and development personnel). While the number of university graduates in PST firms has no connection with the IP regime used, a large number of research and development personnel is associated with the use of a formal IP regime.
In both sectors, innovative exporters with formal IP regimes have a greater commitment to research and development (R&D) activities: not only are they more likely to have R&D personnel, but also to carry out both internal and external R&D activities, and to use R&D staff as a source of information. While there is no link between IP regime and investment in innovation in the ICT sector, innovative PST exporters with formal IP regimes are more likely than those having informal IP regimes to invest more than 25% of their total expenditures in innovative activities. Innovative exporters in the ICT industry group with formal IP regimes are more likely to carry out collaborative innovation projects with external partners than those with informal IP regimes; for selected PST services, there is no such link.
Also in both sectors, innovative exporters with formal IP regimes are more committed to export activities (they are more likely to have more than half of their revenues from exports; they consider the development of export markets an important factor in success of their firm) than their counterparts using informal IP regimes. In both sectors, the most innovative product of exporters using formal IP regimes is more likely to be of higher novelty than the most innovative one of those with informal IP regimes.
[Date Added: Aug 18, 2008 ]