GWD-8-Q9

slamshady

The system of patent-granting, which confers temporary monopolies for the exploitation of new technologies, was originally established as an incentive to the pursuit of risky new ideas. Yet studies of the most patent-conscious business of all—the semiconductor industry—suggest that firms do not necessarily become more innovative as they increase their patenting activity. Ziedonis and Hall, for example, found that investment in research and development (a reasonable proxy for innovation) did not substantially increase between 1982 and 1992, the industry’s most feverish period of patenting. Instead, semiconductor firms simply squeezed more patents out of existing research and development expenditures. Moreover, Ziedonis and Hall found that as patenting activity at semiconductor firms increased in the 1980’s, the consensus among industry employees was that the average quality of their firms’ patents declined. Though patent quality is a difficult notion to measure, the number of times a patent is cited in the technical literature is a reasonable yardstick, and citations per semiconductor patent did decline during the 1980’s. This decline in quality may be related to changes in the way semiconductor firms managed their patenting process: rather than patenting to win exclusive rights to a valuable new technology, patents were filed more for strategic purposes, to be used as bargaining chips to ward off infringement suites or as a means to block competitors’ products.

GWD-8-Q9 :
The passage makes which of the following claims about patent quality in the semiconductor industry?

A.It was higher in the early 1980’s than it was a decade later.

B.it is largely independent of the number of patents granted.

C.It changed between 1982 and 1992 in ways that were linked to changes in research and development expenditures.

D.It is not adequately discussed in the industry’s technical literature.

E.It was measured by inappropriate means during the period from 1982 to 1992.

答案是A，我想问依据在什么地方，B错在哪里？

茉莉蔷薇

应该A对应的是这一句吧！Though patent quality is a difficult notion to measure, the number of times a patent is cited in the technical literature is a reasonable yardstick, and citations per semiconductor patent did decline during the 1980’s.

liucong3689

我觉得B也正确，Moreover, Ziedonis and Hall found that as patenting activity at semiconductor firms increased in the 1980’s, the consensus among industry employees was that the average quality of their firms’ patents declined. 但是不确定patent granting 和patent activity 是不是等价的，如果可以等价理解，那么B也正确。 求NN解释

camille12345678

liucong3689 发表于 2013-3-31 12:19
我觉得B也正确，Moreover, Ziedonis and Hall found that as patenting activity at semiconductor firms i ...

We know from the passage that while the patenting activity increased, the average quality of these firm's patenting declined. Absolutely, we can say that these two are not positively correlated, but maybe these two are negatively correlated. That is what we know from the passage. However, the choice B uses"independent", which refers that these two are not correlated. So it's wrong.