A Dynamic Analysis of University Agricultural Biotechnology Patent Production

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the factors that account for agricultural biotechnology patenting success among universities using a dynamic count data model, and built a theoretical and econometric model to capture the inherently dynamic and nonlinear process of technological innovation.

Abstract: This article examines the factors that account for agricultural biotechnology patenting success among universities using a dynamic count data model. It builds a theoretical and econometric model to capture the inherently dynamic and nonlinear process of technological innovation, wherein a feedback mechanism from previous success partially determines current patent counts. The econometric estimates reveal the importance to agricultural biotechnology patent production of land grant infrastructure, quality faculty, patent-oriented technology transfer offices, as well as dynamic feedback effects. The advent of exclusive property rights for university research (specifically the Bayh-Dole act) has created the potential for major changes in the missions of U.S. universities, especially among land grant universities (LGUs), as well as in the overall system of technology creation and distribution in agriculture. At the same time, new genetic and cloning technologies, along with the recently created ability to patent plants and living organisms, are profoundly changing the range of agricultural technologies that are likely to be available in the United States and internationally. Indeed, as Zilberman, Yarkin, and Heiman argue, these new agricultural biotechnologies (ag-biotech), and their associated intellectual property rights, appear to be creating a new paradigm, a veritable revolution, in the organization and interaction of university research and the agricultural sector. Under this new paradigm, universities emphasize patenting innovations, and then granting (at times