Pennsylvania is gratefully acknowledged.

Patent trolls—firms that appropriate profits from innovation by enforcing patents against infringers—are peculiar players on markets for technologies. As buyers of patents, they are solely interested in the exclusion right, not in the underlying knowledge. Similarly, when they sell or license out patents, the transaction does not involve a technology transfer. In this paper, we empirically analyze trolls ’ patent acquisitions. We draw on a unique dataset of 753 patents acquired by known patent trolls, which we compare to 1506 patents acquired by practicing firms. Our findings regarding patent characteristics support recent theoretical propositions about the troll business model. Trolls focus on patents that have a broad scope and that lie in patent thickets. Furthermore, and contrary to common belief, we find that troll patents are of significantly higher quality than those in the control group, a result that suggests sustainability of the troll business in the future. Extrapolating from our findings, we posit that transactions involving patent trolls may only be the tip of the iceberg of “patent-only ” transactions, a conjecture with strong implications for the efficiency of markets for technologies. Managerial and policy implications are discussed.

This article examined, thought a Cultural Historical Activity Theory lens, how immersive- or pervasive environments and pedagogical agents could more easily support social collaboration as foundation of contemporary learning theory. It is argued that the fundamentalism-liberationism contradiction (learn from versus learn with technology) is no longer justifiable as contemporary technology tools (pervasive/immersive environments and agent technology), the understanding of social networks, and recent neuro-science discoveries negate instructional design philosophies and innatist positions. The use of an activity lens allowed for identification of a number of educational technology design principles including explication of ideological positions, designs for contradictions, acceptance of a post-modern position, designs to overcome homophilic associations, and use of complex real-world learning activities.

This paper aims to advance economic development theory through the concept of jurisdictional advantage; demonstrating how places might strategically position themselves to gain economic advantage; then considering how this place-specific advantage might be constructed. We choose the term jurisdiction to define the set of actors that have a common interest in a spatially bound community. Jurisdictions are entities with a legitimate political ability to influence social and economic outcomes within their boundaries. Borrowing from the literature on corporate strategy, the uniqueness of local capabilities becomes a source of advantage for jurisdictions. We consider how to measure and construct jurisdictional advantage. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

How do regions diversify over time? Industry relatedness and the development

Research collaborations between universities and industry (U-I) are considered to be one important channel of potential localised knowledge spillovers. These collaborations favour both intended and unintended flows of knowledge and facilitate learning processes between partners from different organisations. Despite the copious literature on localised knowledge spillovers, still little is known about the factors driving the formation of U-I research collaborations and, in particular, about the role that geographical proximity plays in the establishment of such relationships. Using collaborative research grants between universities and business firms awarded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), in this paper we disentangle some of the conditions under which different kinds of proximity contribute to the formation of U-I research collaborations, focussing in particular on technological complementarity among the firms participating in such partnerships.