Papers presented by Anna Spadavecchia since 2019

2023 Detroit, MI, United States

"The International Market for Inventions: the UK and the USA in the Interwar Period"

Abstract:

In many industries knowledge can be generated by upstream firms, be these independent specialists or small research-intensive firms, and embodied into new products by dominant firms and lead users. This division of labour in innovation is especially developed in knowledge-intensive industries. The value of transactions in this market for technology, is estimated to be around $100 billion per year, and it is increasing (Arora and Gambardella, 2010; Palermo, Higgins and Ceccagnoli, 2019). The division of labour in innovation is hardly a new phenomenon; a vibrant community of independent inventors and corporate innovation co-existed until the Second World War. Historical work has investigated how transaction costs and information asymmetries were addressed in the USA (Lamoreaux and Sokoloff, 2003; Khan, 2013) and in the UK (Nicholas, 2011; Guagnini, 2012). This valuable body of research has studied markets as being confined to their national limits. For example, where the USA and the UK are concerned, their markets have been treated separately. However, a dataset of 8,000 patents granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office to British inventions in the interwar years, shows that 57 per cent of those patents were issued to inventions produced by independent inventors. This is a strong indication that the market for inventions was operating internationally, which is particularly interesting considering that those years were characterized by trade barriers and protectionism. Using records held in British and American archives, this paper examines how the USA – UK market for inventions operated. It focuses on trade journals, patent agents and on the relative importance of the transfer of ideas, through transactions of property rights, versus the movement of inventors. This research is timely, and the historical period offers a vantage point for investigating how new technology travels and highlights strategies to navigate the increasingly disintegrated contemporary international economic environment.

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2020 Charlotte, North Carolina

"Fundamental Patents, Industry Control, and the Rise of the Giant American Corporation"

Abstract:

This paper seeks to explore the role of “fundamental”, or “broad” patents in the genesis of the U.S. corporation during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. While the restriction of competition is widely regarded as having been an important motive behind the rise of the modern American corporation, the processes by which this was achieved are not fully explored - partly owing to limited availability of data for many companies and sectors (compounded by anti-trust concerns). In particular, the key importance of industry control through “fundamental” or “broad” patents, remains a neglected area of research. “Broad” or “fundamental” patents protect technology essential to the production of a viable product and can thus potentially block or control competition. We examine the importance of control over fundamental patents and restrictive practices underpinned by patent licensing (or exclusivity), to the creation of monopoly power and the growth of giant corporations. We use evidence from the House of Representatives’ “Oldfield hearings” before the Committee on Patents (1912) and a series of investigations conducted by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from 1921 to 1925. Both sources provide detailed information regarding patent pools and patent licensing; key companies and industry structure; and trade associations. Moreover, the ‘Oldfield hearings’ and the FTC reports had the power to subpoena witness testimony and thus shed rare light on the presence and nature of anti-competitive practices. Our paper, which is still in progress, surveys the sectors covered by the Oldfield Hearings and the FTC reports, i.e. household durables. We will also provide a detailed analysis of a number of case-study sectors, selected to show typical ways by which patents could be used to restrict competition and corporate control was implemented – such as market sharing agreements; price controls; product characteristics controls; and restrictions on distribution methods.

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