经济与社会科学2021papers.ssrn.com
软件盗版与知识产权管理：对模仿的战略应对
Software Piracy and IP Management: Strategic Responses to Imitation
进阶 · 约 55 分钟读完前置知识：计量经济学基础、知识产权与专利制度、软件产业背景
导读
这篇论文研究软件盗版（模仿）如何影响企业的创新与知识产权策略。作者把上市软件公司的研发支出、专利/版权/商标数量与一个盗版软件数据集相匹配，结论是盗版等竞争冲击会促使企业加快创新以领先模仿者，而这一效应受企业既有专利组合的调节。
HN 关注点：这个反直觉结论——盗版竟可能促进创新——以及它牵出的软件专利是否真能衡量或促进创新的争论。
HN 评论精选
这几条评论里：质疑 2 补充 2
质疑结论不意外，专利和反盗版本就是企业减少竞争的手段，专利反而可能抑制创新。
论文结论说盗版等竞争冲击促使企业创新以领先模仿产品，且这一效应受既有专利组合调节。我觉得验证这一点固然好，但这不正是公司打击盗版、申请并执行专利的原因吗？就是为了减少竞争、更容易从自己的产出中获利。基本上，前提是不是：如果盗版泛滥且没有专利，更多人和公司就能在不怕被起诉的情况下在这项技术上创新？我想到电子墨水（Eink）领域多么停滞，如果没有专利束缚这项技术会被用得多广（仅举一例）。我就是不觉得这结论有什么意外。
bluejekyll查看英文原文
“We conclude that piracy and similar competitive shocks push firms to innovate to stay ahead of imitator products, and that this effect is moderated by their existing patent portfolios.” I guess it’s good to study that this is the case, but isn’t this exactly why companies fight piracy and attempt to patent and then enforce those patents? That is to reduce competition and make it easier to extract value from what they’ve produced? Basically, isn’t the premise that if privacy was rampant and patents didn’t exist then more people and companies would be able to innovate on the technology without fear of a lawsuit? I think of how stagnant the Eink space is, and how much broader usage might that technology get if it wasn’t encumbered by patents (just one example)? I guess I just don’t find this surprising.
质疑质疑用专利数和研发支出衡量创新的有效性，并亲历企业为凑专利而设奖金的现象。
他们用易于测量的东西当作“创新”：更多专利申请不等于创新更多，研发支出增加也多半只是会计惯例。我在两家公司工作过，管理层把“多申请专利”当成该做的事，我们会问工程师“最近做了什么”，再决定其中是否有可专利的东西，申请就发奖金，授权（4-8年后）再发一笔。在谷歌地图那儿有一段时间，甚至提交专利想法就给奖金，哪怕没真正申请——我在委员会上给想法分级。我不需要再解释软件专利与“创新”毫无关系。
AlbertCory查看英文原文
"Second, we build a dataset that matches the financial information of publicly traded software firms with (1) R&D expenditures and patent, copyright, and trademark counts, and (2) a unique dataset of pirated software." That's fine, but they're measuring what can be measured easily and calling it "innovation" (at least in the headline), rather than anything meaningful. Having more patent filings doesn't mean you're "innovating" more. Nor does spending more on "R&D" which is mostly just an accounting convention. At two companies, I worked on getting more patent filings, because that was seen by management as The Thing To Do. In both cases, we would ask the engineers "what have you done lately?" and then decide if any of that might be patentable. Usually this involved paying a bounty to the "inventor" if a patent application was filed, and another if the patent actually issued (4-8 years later). In one case for awhile (Google Maps), they were actually paying people a bounty for submitting an idea for a patent, even if no application was filed! I was on the committee that decided if the idea was (1) great, file for sure, (2) pretty good, maybe file, (3) OK but don't file, or (4) so bad you don't even get the idea bounty. (*Full disclosure: I'm pretty sure this system isn't in effect anymore.*) I've written elsewhere [1] about the dubiousness of software patents, so I don't need to explain how they have nothing to do with "innovation." [1] https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2399580
补充盗版能逼迫行业创新，但方向未必对社会有益（以韩国游戏业转向网游和抽卡箱为例）。
韩国游戏业在90年代深受盗版之苦，这成了其快速转向网游的主要驱动力。最早的图形化MMORPG之一就是Nexon做的（比UO早一年），而Nexon恰好也是抽卡箱（loot box）的发明者，后者成了其主导商业模式——我想没多少人更喜欢它胜过老式买断制游戏。所以盗版确实可能逼迫行业“创新”产品和商业模式以求生存，但并不保证这种创新对社会有益。
summerlight查看英文原文
S. Korea gaming industry once suffered a lot from piracy in 90s. This was a main driver of their rapid transition toward online gaming. In fact, one of the earliest graphical MMORPG was invented by Nexon (a year before UO). Coincidentally, Nexon is also the inventor of loot box which becomes their dominant business model. And I think not many people prefer this over old fashioned game packages. So yeah, piracy could corner industry to "innovate" their product and business model in order to survive. But it's not guaranteed to be in a societally beneficial way.
补充补充全文与通俗摘要链接，方便读者查阅原文。
为防止链接失效，全文在这里：https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3912074 ；通俗版摘要：https://torrentfreak.com/software-piracy-triggers-innovation-research-finds-210902/
azalemeth查看英文原文
For the avoidance of link rot, the full paper is at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3912074 A populist lay summary: https://torrentfreak.com/software-piracy-triggers-innovation-research-finds-210902/
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