Patent production at a european research university: exploratory evidence at the laboratory level

Abstract

Most studies of academic patenting focus on the university as the unit of analysis. In contrast, we examine this phenomenon at the laboratory level. Based on a sample of 83 research laboratories of University Louis Pasteur (ULP, Strasbourg, France) from 1993 to 2000, we constructed a panel data set that allows us to discriminate between patents that are owned by the university and those that are owned by firms and other organizations but invented by faculty members. We use these data to estimate a patent production function and we have three main findings. First, ULP owned patents respond to public funding but not to time shocks like in US. Second, disciplines and institutions matter to estimate the impact of contractual funding on university patents, validating the laboratory approach. Third, university-non-owned patents behave different from university owned patents, e.g. they are more responsive to industrial funding or institutional prestige.