In this paper, we leverage the first randomized control trial of inventors at the USPTO to demonstrate that granted patent rights provide substantial benefits to independent inventors. We also find that the nature of these benefits differs by inventor type. For financially-constrained Pro se inventors from the USPTO experiment, patents act as a signal and increase the likelihood of affiliation. For the broader set of independent inventors, however, patents reduce financial, informational, and commercialization frictions and increase subsequent inventive activity.

03:33
Video games are a global digital infrastructure with real economic and social impact. They raise ethical challenges - from harassment to manipulative gamification - often overlooked by traditional frameworks. Normative, utilitarian, and virtue ethics approaches guide design, but often miss the designers’ own experiences and dilemmas. A case study of Eldermove shows ethical design emerges when developers avoid infantilizing users and step back from assumptions about them, respecting dignity and autonomy. Creating responsible games requires attending to the ethics of design itself. As gaming increasingly shapes culture, business, and healthcare, understanding designers’ fantasies and choices is key to technologies that truly support users.
PIGNOT Edouard - EMLV |
- Trends
- Digital Transformation, Health Sector Management, Information Systems, Innovation Management, Organizational Theory

