Parallel Research, Multiple Intellectual Property Right Protection Instruments, and the Correlation among R&D Projects
研究企业在拥有专利和商业秘密等多种知识产权保护工具时，如何选择研发路径，发现多种保护工具能使企业选择的研发路径更接近社会最优水平。
The choice of a research path in attacking scientific and technological problems is a significant component of firms' R&D strategy. One of the findings of the patent races literature is that, in a competitive market setting, firms' noncooperative choices of research projects display an excessive degree of correlation, as compared to the socially optimal level. The paper revisits this question in a context in which firms have access to trade secrets, in addition to patents, to assert intellectual property rights (IPR) over their discoveries. We find that the availability of multiple IPR protection instruments can move the paths chosen by firms engaged in an R&D race toward the social optimum.