Story: BSA figures do not add up

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Dear Ingrid,

Thank you for acknowledging my previous comments, and for your email to me about them. I'm sorry that my schedule has permitted a few days to pass before responding.

Regarding your question about the 20% figure, in the fourth paragraph of page 5 of the study summary (www.bsa.org/patents) I indicated clearly that “All documents by SMEs represent roughly 1/5 of the total hits for computer-implemented patents.” Twenty percent, of course, is simply another way of saying one-fifth. In fact, based on the raw data, the figure is slightly higher than 20%.

Regarding your second question, if given a larger definition of CII, my previous posting didn’t argue that the percentage would change, only the absolute number. Naturally, the percentage of firms which are SMEs could increase or decrease with a broader scope of CII. However, since you appear to be arguing that the report “overcounts” small firms, I simply wish to clarify that in fact there would be a greater number of them to count if we adopted a larger scope for the study. Since the mandate of the report was to count the number of SMEs which work with CII, it appeared to me that overcounting referred to counting the number of firms.

Once again, I aver that the study reasonably and accurately reflects economic reality. We have clearly shown that SMEs in Europe use the patent system at the rates indicated in the study.

I welcome comments and criticism, but have yet to hear or see any arguments that effectively question the precision of the final report.

Best regards,

Daniel K.N. Johnson
Mrachek Fellow and Assistant Professor
Economics and Business Department
Colorado College
14 East Cache La Poudre Street
Colorado Springs, CO 80903

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