Derclaye (2014)
Contents
Source Details
| Derclaye (2014) | |
| Title: | Do patents, trademarks and designs foster happiness in developed countries? An empirical analysis |
| Author(s): | Derclaye, E. |
| Year: | 2014 |
| Citation: | Derclaye, E. (2014). Do patents, trademarks and designs foster happiness in developed countries? An empirical analysis. International Journal of Happiness and Development, 1(4), 357-368. |
| Link(s): | Definitive , Open Access |
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| About the Data | |
| Data Description: | The number of patents, trademarks and designs is analysed against the happiness index for the same country to look for a correlation. The paper looks at the data in developed countries where the number of patents,trademarks and designs should be relatively high in view of their state of development. The paper analyses the data relating to patents, trademarks and designs but not copyright, because copyright is not a registered right and there are no available statistics on how many works are in force in a country in a given year. |
| Data Type: | Secondary data |
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| Cross Country Study?: | Yes |
| Comparative Study?: | Yes |
| Literature review?: | No |
| Government or policy study?: | No |
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Abstract
"Intellectual property rights are exclusive rights the law gives to authors and inventors to stimulate creativity and innovation. Intellectual property laws’ justification assumes that the more creations and inventions there are, the better off the population is. Therefore, the law promotes innovation and creativity without limits. This paper challenges this assumption by analysing empirically data on patents, trademarks and designs and on life satisfaction. It finds that there is no correlation between trademarks and designs and life satisfaction but a strong correlation between patents and life satisfaction. However passed a certain point, it is unclear whether more patents make people happier."
Main Results of the Study
- For patents: The author observes that there is an increase in the happiness of countries when more patents are introduced. This increase of happiness can be interpreted by the fact that more new products improving peoples’ life are made available to the population such as computers, medicine and new home appliances. However, past a certain point the level of happiness decreases. The authors hypothesis that too many patents make it more difficult to bring new products to the market. Another hypothesis is that too much choices decreases happiness. Hence, patents are a way to increase happiness but only to a certain point.
- For trademarks and designs: The author performed the same analysis with trademarks and designs however no correlation is found between happiness and the number of trademarks and design. In the case of trademarks this could be explained by the fact that trademarks do not pertain to the products themselves (they are only signs to identify the products).
- The author notes that it is not yet possible to conclude that too many intellectual property rights are detrimental to happiness. More research is needed, and the concept of happiness may be a way to improve the traditional economic analysis of intellectual property rights.
Policy Implications as Stated By Author
The study does not make any explicit policy recommendations
Coverage of Study
Datasets
| Sample size: | 25 |
| Level of aggregation: | Country |
| Period of material under study: | 2013 |
