Resumen de Patent examination outcomes and the national treatment principle

Elizabeth Webster, Paul H. Jensen, Alfons Palangkaraya

• One of the principles enshrined in all international patent treaties is that equal treatment should be provided to inventors regardless of their nationality. Little is known about whether this �national treatment� principle is upheld in practice. We analyze whether patent examination outcomes at the European and Japanese patent offices vary systematically by inventor nationality and technology area, using a matched sample of 47,947 patent applications. We find that domestic inventors have a higher likelihood of obtaining a patent grant than foreign inventors and that the positive domestic inventor effect is stronger in areas of technological specialization in the domestic economy.