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Sovereign Patent Funds: Sovereign Wealth Funds 2.0?
Author(s) -
Clarke Warren
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
global policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.602
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1758-5899
pISSN - 1758-5880
DOI - 10.1111/1758-5899.12353
Subject(s) - sovereign wealth fund , global assets under management , sovereignty , scope (computer science) , business , investment (military) , sovereign state , politics , economics , finance , foreign direct investment , institutional investor , political science , law , macroeconomics , corporate governance , computer science , programming language
Significant academic and policy attention has focused on identifying the causes and consequences of the growth of traditional sovereign wealth funds ( SWF s). This paper, in contrast, highlights a new type of sovereign investment vehicle – sovereign patents funds ( SPF s) – that have emerged primarily in advanced industrialized economies, including France, South Korea and Japan. As defined here, SPF s are investment funds that seek to acquire intellectual property resources deemed strategically valuable in the pursuit of national economic objectives. This brief survey article considers the implications of SPF s in comparison to more traditional sovereign wealth funds. In doing so, it asks what emerging discourses on sovereign patent funds can learn from the sovereign wealth fund debate, and points to both similarities and important differences between these entities. While highlighting similarities between SPF s and traditional SWF s, the paper notes that patent funds are more explicitly political than their SWF counterparts. Following an overview of both SPF s and SWF s, the paper compares elements of the structure, behaviour, and response to these funds. Finally, while a full assessment of the activities and merits of SPF s lies beyond the scope of this article, the conclusion offers key lessons drawn from the SWF comparison.