Are Foreigners Treated Equally under the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement?
检验了世界贸易组织管理的《与贸易有关的知识产权协定》中的国民待遇原则在五大专利局是否得到遵守，发现专利审查中存在系统性的对外国企业的偏见，而通过《专利合作条约》提交国际申请可减少部分偏见。
The Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement, administered by the World Trade Organization, ensures the smooth functioning of the international patent system. It promises among other things that local and foreign firms are treated in the same, nondiscriminatory manner. We test for whether the national treatment principle has been upheld in the five largest patent offices and document the existence of a systematic bias against foreign firms in patent examination decisions. We find that filing international patent applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty can reduce some of the bias.