Trademarks, patents and the appropriation strategies of incumbents: the scope of new firm formation in European regions

ABSTRACT

Analysis of the relationship between knowledge spillovers and new firm formation in 980 NUTS-3 regions at the industry level shows that regional knowledge stocks represented by patents positively influence new firm formation, but that knowledge protection and appropriation strategies of incumbents discourage it. Knowledge stocks represented by trademarks translate into higher entry rates in the absence of a pronounced appropriation strategy of incumbents or when entrants do not directly compete with the trademarking incumbents. Our findings highlight the two-sided effects of trademarks: as an indicator of product novelties as well as a potential expression of strengthened incumbent appropriation strategies.

KEYWORDS:

• entrepreneurship
• intellectual property rights
• new firm formation
• entry
• patents
• trademarks
• knowledge spillovers

JEL:

• L26
• O34
• R11

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors are grateful to the guest editors and anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions regarding an earlier version of the manuscript. They also benefited from discussions and comments received at the EPIP 2018 Conference in Berlin and the Special Session on Trademarks in Space at the 5th Geography of Innovation Conference in Stavanger in January 2020.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. This includes standardization and harmonization, taking account of differences in names across countries, and removal of special characters and legal forms, among others.

2. Statistics on the top patenting and trademarking regions, aggregated across industries, can be obtained from the authors upon request.

3. There is no similar direct link between university patents and NACE industry as we can establish for firms based on their NACE codes in ORBIS.

4. Estimation of negative binomial models produces similar results.