MOTIVES TO PATENT: EVIDENCE FROM ARGENTINE MANUFACTURING FIRMS

According to the literature on appropriation, firms patent mainly to prevent copy. However, given that innovation and patents form part of firms’ broader competitive strategies, patenting can include many other objectives such as blocking, increasing prestige and improving bargaining power, among others. The evidence about this kind of strategic and competitive use of patents is extensive for developed countries but almost null for developing countries. This paper aims to contribute to filling this gap in two ways: firstly, by analysing Argentine firms’ motivations for patenting and, secondly, by exploring the determinants of such motivations. The data used comes from the most recent Argentine innovation survey (ENDEI II), which provides information on around 300 manufacturing firms that applied for patents between 2014 and 2016. The findings show that Argentine firms follow one of two composite patenting strategies, the most common one being guided by objectives related to protection, including different types of blocking, and the other being guided by the less technological goals identified by the literature on strategic patenting, such as prestige, bargaining and licences.