The role of public patent ownership in grant rates

Innovations are crucial for economic growth and therefore have to be stimulated. In today¿s modern societies patent systems are the most used policy to encourage innovations. A patent application is granted when invention satisfies three criteria: novelty, inventive step and industrial applicability. The probability to fulfil those criteria might depend on various factors. This master thesis uses a new approach and focuses on the ownership of public patent applications. The decision to investigate various ownership models was made in order to understand how to design incentives of public research. The findings give the insight that a substantial part of public patents are not granted due to the coordination failure between certain co-applicants. This could be overcome by introducing a policy which encourages public organisations¿ collaboration with companies. This collaboration is beneficial because, according to the findings, it gives more valuable patents and higher grant rates.