TECHNOLOGY POLICY PARADIGMS AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY STRATEGIES - 3 NATIONAL MODELS

This paper constructs and contrasts mission-oriented and diffusion-oriented policy paradigms for commercial technology and suggests that the U.S. and Japan, respectively, are representative of both. This paper also investigates the new American challenge of intellectual property institution in international competition and concludes that the U.S. and Japan appear to be two successful cases in forming synergistic relationships between technology policy and intellectual property system, the former in an offensive position and the latter in a defensive position. In this new era, the U.S. industry's traditional strength as a ''first mover'' in generating technology is better appropriated than before, and follower countries mainly relying on technology diffusion and application are in a very disadvantageous position. In the follower group, perhaps Japan is the only exception because its patent system is deliberately in favor of its industry at the expense of foreign inventors and in support of its diffusion-oriented policy. Taiwan's case shows that a Japanese-style government-industry partnership is not easy to form and firms need to formulate their own corporate strategies to cope with the new intellectual property challenge. In all, the U.S., Japan, and Taiwan constitute three models with profound implications for many other countries.