Timothy Simcoe and Filippo Mezzanotti
After the Supreme Court ruled that courts should not automatically enter injunctions against patent infringers, some commentators feared that the decision would hinder innovation and growth in the U.S. More than ten years later, this paper examines the data to see whether those fears came true.
Robert Seamans and Jason Furman
Is artificial intelligence (AI) having a large effect on the economy? A variety of statistics—including robotics shipments, AI startups, and patent counts—show a large increase in AI-related activity. AI and robotics also have the potential to increase productivity growth but may cause labor market upheaval. This paper explores some strategies and policies for dealing with this upheaval.
Iain Cockburn, Rebecca Henderson, and Scott Stern.
Can artificial intelligence serve as a new general-purpose “method of invention” that can reshape the nature of the innovation process and the organization of R&D? Research suggests that this may lead to a significant substitution away from more routinized labor-intensive research towards research that takes advantage of the interplay between passively generated large datasets and enhanced prediction algorithms. The authors suggest that policies which encourage transparency and sharing of core datasets across both public and private actors may be critical tools for stimulating research productivity and innovation-oriented competition.
Lesley Chiou and Catherine Tucker
Does Big Data give large companies an unfair competitive advantage? New machine learning technologies depend on access to large amounts of data. This means that large companies might be able to use their huge stores of data to provide better products and services than smaller rivals and startups. Or not…
Research Summary: Does Big Data favor big companies?
James Bessen
Will industries use new information technologies to eliminate jobs? Sometimes productivity-enhancing technology increases industry employment instead. In manufacturing, jobs grew along with productivity for a century or more; only later did productivity gains bring declining employment. What changed? Markets became saturated.
Research Summary: Why Isn’t Automation Creating Unemployment?
Mark Lemley and Timothy Simcoe
This paper explores what happens when standard-essential patents (SEPs) go to court. The authors found that, contrary to their expectations, SEPs are more likely to be held valid than non-SEP patents, but they are significantly less likely to be infringed. In other words, SEPs, once in court, do not seem to be all that essential. One cause, the authors found, comes from the assertion of SEP patent rights by so-called patent trolls, which has implications in policy debates over both SEPs and patent trolls.
James Bessen
Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies will automate many jobs, but the effect on employment is not obvious. Although technology has sharply reduced jobs in manufacturing in recent decades, for over a century before that, employment grew, even in industries experiencing rapid technological change. This paper presents a simple model of the change in demand that accurately predicts the rise and fall of employment in the textile, steel and automotive industries, and will be useful for exploring how AI is likely to affect jobs over the next 10 or 20 years.
Michael J. Meurer
Although the paradigmatic defendant in a patent infringement lawsuit is a vertically integrated manufacturer, modern supply chains now include many different businesses, each of which must contemplate the risk of patent infringement when entering into the contracts to form those chains. This paper provides some guidance on best practices for terms of indemnification agreements that address both efficient risk management and effective bargaining against a patent-plaintiff.
Susan Helper, Raphael Martins, Robert Seamans
This paper offers several predictions about how Industry 4.0 – the coordinated use of robots, sensors, AI, and other digitally-enabled technologies in manufacturing – will affect which firms and occupations capture value in manufacturing. Using in-depth interviews with manufacturers that are part of the automotive value chain, the authors find that value migration within firms likely affects whether and how value migration occurs across firms.
James Bessen
Since the 1980s, US industries have become increasingly dominated by large firms across almost all sectors. Why? One possibility is that large firms have become dominant because antitrust authorities have allowed too many mergers and acquisitions. James Bessen explores another possibility: that leading firms have been better at harnessing information technology (IT) for competitive advantage, allowing them to grow faster.
Research Summary: Why are large firms becoming more dominant?