Economist Ullberg Speaks to United Nations about Patent Markets, Innovation
Posted: December 18, 2012 at 2:51 pm, Last Updated: December 18, 2012 at 2:57 pm
By Rashad Mulla, College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Mason economist Eskil Ullberg speaking at the United Nations. U.N. image
More than 100 nations were represented at the United Nations last month when Eskil Ullberg, a visiting research scholar in Mason?s Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Sciences (ICES) and a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Economics, addressed the infusion ? or lack thereof ? of technology into underdeveloped countries.
Ullberg is an expert on patents, technology, exchange theory and intellectual property, and he brought that expertise to the international stage by speaking as part of the panel ?Science, Technology and Innovation for Development.?
Ullberg advocated combining the patent system with an educational and social agenda to include more nations in the global economic system and better promote technology building on human capital formation.
First, he pointed out that the current patent system, designed to protect the rights of inventors, does not encourage or involve smaller companies as much as larger companies. As the system currently stands, large companies engage in substantial litigation with each other for the rights to own a patent, and smaller companies, which cannot match the financial and legal resources of their larger counterparts, tread more carefully when it comes to innovation.
Because smaller, less-developed countries churn out knowledge and ideas at an increasingly rapid rate, using the patent system to link these ideas would put more minds toward solving everyday problems while allowing smaller companies and poorer countries to reap the financial rewards of innovation.
This leads to Ullberg?s second point: The patent system tends to reward litigious behavior rather than collaboration. As an example, he discussed the recent court battle between Apple and Samsung in which a California court awarded Apple $1 billion in damages against Samsung for infringing upon Apple patents. Ullberg noted that in U.S. patent law, if one company simply accuses another of potential infringement, the accused must disclose, by court order, all of its private information on the issue, paying for the entire process. In Europe, by contrast, the loser of the court battle pays for the costs.
?The incentives written into law reward rent-seeking litigation and enforcement of the patent system more than negotiation,? he said. ?How can we make negotiation more interesting and attractive than litigation??
The emphasis is misplaced, explained Ullberg: ?Companies should be driven by the value of the technology to the economy. How we get there is the question.?
Prior to joining Mason six years ago, Ullberg worked for 20 years in international management consulting in Europe. He currently teaches in the Economics Department, and in spring 2013 he will lead a National Science Foundation-funded workshop on internationalization and competitiveness.
Ullberg is the author of the 2011 book, ?Trade in Ideas ? Performance and Behavioral Properties of Markets in Patents,? which was published by Springer. He is continuing his research on markets and patents and is at work on a Swedish Research Council-funded study on trust between firms that features 14 companies.
?What the U.N. is doing has the potential to have a huge economic impact around the world,? Ullberg says. ?It?s a great honor to have spoken there. We need to keep working to see how we can allow for exchange and tradability between the economic north and south.?
This article originally appeared on the College of Humanities and Social Sciences website in a slightly different format.
Write to Robin Herron at rherron@gmu.edu
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