Cover
Half-title
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Diagrams and tables
List of abbreviations
Preface
1 Patent offices and the global governance of knowledge
The patent ocean: Kiribati
Global patent governance
Definitional clarifications
Patents as private taxation
Collective action, co-evolution and diffusion: explaining the changes in patent office administration
Patent offices: the business model approach
Disclosure and social value: two versions of the patent social contract
The duties of the patent office.

The fieldwork trail and some findings
'Invisible' patent harmonization and why patent offices matter
2 Labyrinths and catacombs: Patent office procedure
Welcome to the maze
Filing routes
A procedure, another procedure and yet more procedures
Grant procedure
Patent quality
The dark heart of complexity: patent claims
3 The rise of patent offices
Patent statutes
Monopoly privileges
Procedures for the grant of monopoly privileges
The gap between patent law and patent administration
The rise and spread of patent administration.

4 The Sun and its planets: The european Patent office and national offices
Europe's national patent offices
The birth of the European patent system
The European Patent Convention
Funding and fees at the EPO
Surf's up: PCT waves
The EPO and national patent offices: from centralization to cooperation and competition
Technical assistance and technocratic trust
The effects of technocratic trust
The echoes of empire
5 The USPTO and JPO
The USPTO
The US patent system in the blink of an eye
The problems in 1845
The problems today
Gaming behaviour.

Patent fees
In whom do we trust?
The Japanese patent system: from diffusion to monopoly rights
Joining the club
On being a senior member of the club
Becoming an IP nation
Trust and automation
6 The age of Trilaterals and the spirit of cooperation
Trilateral cooperation
Overwork
The spirit of cooperation: the Patent Cooperation Treaty
The spirit of cooperation: companies and the PCT
On being an international authority
The Trilateral hub
Superhighways of cooperation
The superhighway elite: trust, cooperation and competition
The manual is the message.

7 The jewel in the crown: India's Patent office
Integration
India: re-designing a colonial institution
The patent raj
India's patent office: the jewel in the crown
Modernization
'How can we win?': India's strategy on patents
From bright line rules to shades of grey
A patent-bright future?
8 The dragon and the tiger: china and South Korea
Patent law in the era of decline, rebellion and war
Patents in communist China
Opening the door to patents
The great leap forward: the State Intellectual Property Office
The Asian Trilaterals
The tiger office.

9 Joining the patent office conga line: brazil.