This authoritative collection reprints the key articles in the field of the economics of patents. The editor's selection, contextualised by a comprehensive introduction, examines the classic literature on the design and evolution of the patent system, the now well-established body of work on the use of patent statistics as a measure of invention and technological change, and the new interest in the analysis of corporate patenting. Volume I explores the nature of the patent system, the breadth of patent scope, and the historical foundations of patenting. It goes on to cover overall macro-trends and sectoral patterns of patenting over long periods, as well as critical appraisals of the use of patent statistics.

Volume II addresses topics such as firm motivations to patent, the valuation of patents, and determinants of variations in the propensity to patent. It concludes with the analysis of corporate technological profiles, and patterns of knowledge flows, science-technology relationships and social networks.