Measuring cross-country heterogeneity in the value of patents based on the patent-trade relationship

Because of the heterogeneity of the patent protection system and the business environment across countries, the private value of patents varies. Therefore, current approaches that mostly consider the level of patent protection have limitations in capturing the strategic value of patents. This paper suggests a new approach for estimating the perceived private value of a patent in a country by considering the scale of trade in the United States, Europe, China, Japan, Korea, Brazil, India, Canada, and Russia. The results indicate that the value of patents in a country changed over the sample period, regardless of the level of patent protection, suggesting that changes in the strategic business value of patents played a key role in the value of patents in those countries.