Faculty of Science, Technology and Medicine
Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance
Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences
Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust
Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine
Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History
Luxembourg Centre for European Law
Luxembourg Centre for Socio-Environmental Systems
Challenges facing self-reliant inventors: Do patents help?
Abstract
Self-reliant inventors—those who file patent applications without organizational affiliation (independent inventors) or without legal representation (pro se inventors)—have long contributed to U.S. economic growth and technological progress. Despite their importance, these inventors face institutional and procedural barriers within the patent system that hinder patent acquisition and commercialization. We examine whether institutional support can mitigate these disadvantages by analyzing the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s first randomized controlled trial designed to assist pro se applicants during patent prosecution. We find that randomly assigned assistance increases the probability of patent grant by approximately 25 percent. We estimate the causal effect of patent receipt on subsequent inventive activity among self-reliant inventors and show that receiving a patent significantly increases the likelihood of continued inventive participation for both pro se and independent inventors. Exploring mechanisms, we find that patent receipt facilitates engagement in markets for technology, including the sale of patent rights, which in turn supports sustained invention. Together, these findings indicate that targeted initiatives within public agencies can improve downstream innovation outcomes and underscores the importance of technology markets for sustaining self-reliant inventors.
About the speaker
Charles de Grazia is an Associate Professor of Innovation Economics at the École de Management Léonard de Vinci, in La Défense, France. He earned his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of London (Royal Holloway College) in 2020. From 2015 to 2020, he worked as an economist in the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s Office of the Chief Economist, and since 2025 he has worked as a consultant to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). His research focuses on the intersection of intellectual property, innovation economics, and economic policy and has received several awards, including the Best Paper Award from the Technology and Innovation Management (TIM) Division at the 2022 Academy of Management Annual Conference. His work has been published in leading innovation and economics journals, including Research Policy, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Industry and Innovation, and The Economics of Innovation and New Technology
Language
English
This is a free seminar. Registration is mandatory.
Supported by the Fond National de la Recherche
Luxembourg (19441346)