Jensen, P.H., Palangkaraya, A. and Webster, E. (2006). “Disharmony in international patent office decisions”, Federal Circuit Bar Journal 15(4), 679-704.
In Part I, we consider some background to the patent harmonization debate, compare the differences in patent law (and patent examination processes) across jurisdictions and consider what factors might affect the decision to grant a patent in one jurisdiction but not another. In Part II, we provide information on the construction of the patent dataset, and in Part III, we provide some descriptive analysis on the characteristics of international patent application outcomes. In Part IV, we analyze the characteristics of those patents where the trilateral offices are in disharmony with regard to the patent application outcomes. Finally, we draw some conclusions and implications for the patent harmonization debate.