The Role of Patents for Bridging the Science to Market Gap

This theory paper examines an ex-post rationale for the patenting of sci-enti c discoveries. Scientists do not know which \u85rms can make use of their discoveries, and \u85rms do not know which scienti\u85c discoveries might be useful to them. To bridge this gap, either or both sides need to engage in costly search activities. Patents increase (decrease) dissemination when the search intensity of rms is su ¢ ciently inelastic (elastic), relative to that of scientists. Patents also facilitate the delegation of search activities to the universitiestechnology transfer o ¢ ces, which enables e ¢ cient specialization. Patenting may be thus become a complement to doing research