Reiffenstein T. Specialization, centralization, and the distribution of patent intermediaries in the USA and Japan, Regional Studies. The preparation, examination and litigation of patents requires a complex division of labour. The inventors and firms that generate patents have been well covered in the geographical literature, but the same cannot be said of the producer services whose job it is to shepherd patents through patent offices and the courts. This paper explores the spatial distribution of patent intermediaries (agents and attorneys) in the USA and Japan with a view to shedding light on how the institutional architecture of national patent systems shapes the geographies of patent practitioners. This comparison reveals important differences in their locational preferences at several scales of analysis. US patent intermediation is geographically decentralized and practised in conjunction with other facets of business law, while in Japan the situation is far more specialized and concentrated in Tokyo. [image omitted] Reiffenstein T. Specialisation, centralisation et repartition des intermediaires en brevets aux Etats-Unis et au Japon, Regional Studies. La preparation, l'examen et les litiges en matiere de brevets exigent une division complexe de travail. Les inventeurs et les entreprises qui deposent des brevets ont fait l'objet de nombreux articles dans la litterature geographique mais on ne peut pas en dire autant des services de production dont le travail est de guider les brevets a travers les bureaux de brevets et les tribunaux. Cet article analyse la repartition geographique des intermediaires en brevets (agents et avocats) aux Etats-Unis et au Japon afin de faire la lumiere et d'expliquer comment l'architecture institutionnelle des systemes nationaux de brevets dessine la carte de la repartition des praticiens en brevets. Cette comparaison fait apparaitre des differences importantes en ce qui concerne les preferences geographiques a plusieurs echelles de l'analyse. Aux Etats-Unis, les intermediaires en brevets sont decentralises sur le plan geographique et travaillent conjointement avec d'autres secteurs du droit des affaires alors qu'au Japon la situation est beaucoup plus specialisee et concentree a Tokyo. Intermediaires en brevets Systemes nationaux d'innovation Etats-Unis Japon Reiffenstein T. Spezialisierung, Zentralisierung und Verteilung von Patentdienstleistern in den USA und in Japan, Regional Studies. Fur die Vorbereitung, Prufung und Einklagung von Patenten ist eine komplexe Arbeitsteilung erforderlich. Die Erfinder und Unternehmen, die Patente entwickeln, wurden in der geografischen Literatur bereits ausfuhrlich behandelt. Dasselbe lasst sich hingegen nicht von den Dienstleistern sagen, die die Patente durch Patentamter und Gerichte leiten. In diesem Beitrag wird die raumliche Verteilung von Patentdienstleistern (Vertretern und Anwalten) in den USA und Japan untersucht, um festzustellen, wie sich die institutionelle Architektur der nationalen Patentsysteme auf die Geografien der Patentdi...

Recent research in economic geography has emphasized tacit knowledge as the basis of industrial learning. In contrast, codification and the practices of industrial writing have received little attention for the roles they play in mobilizing knowledge across space. This paper offers insight into the geographies of codification through an examination of technology transfer in the electronic musical instrument industry between 1965 and 1995. The research draws on a variety of primary and secondary data that include interviews with inventors, biographical accounts and patent analysis. These sources offer perspective on the career trajectories of three U.S. inventors who transferred knowledge from various contexts in California's high‐tech industry to the Japanese firm, Yamaha. Conceptually, the paper draws on the actor–network theory and Latour's idea of translation to highlight the detours inventors must take to register novelty. The analysis reveals the problematic nature of codified knowledge and its transfer; in this case codified knowledge was mobile internationally but not locally, at least until it reached Japan. The paper argues for the need to understand how texts such as patents are produced—the context of their authorship, the geographies of their circulation and their efficacy for shaping further innovative practice.

In this article, trade is conceptualized as a cultural as well as an economic and political process. In this view, exporting connects market intelligence with production intelligence on either side of national, typically cultural, borders. These connections frequently imply alternative, mutually influencing, forms of communication and learning that have various implications for local development. A model of relational market intelligence is outlined as a way of understanding this dimension of exporting. The model integrates production and market intelligence while emphasizing alternative pathways of learning and communication. It is applied to the newly emergent trade that features the export of houses from British Columbia to Japan. Within an extended case-study research design framework, information is based on interviews with manufacturing firms and related organizations in British Columbia. Implications for local development in British Columbia are noted.

In Japan, a well‐established, widespread system of local timber market auctions, featuring the exchange of privately owned logs, is increasingly threatened by imports organized according to mass production principles. This article assesses the evolution, rationale, and functions of Japan's timber auctions that were primarily created in post‐war Japan to provide key roles linking small‐scale (private) forest owners to flexibly specialized value chains that are consummated in Japanese homes. The conceptual point of departure for the analysis is flexible specialization theory's interpretation of industrialization as a contest between mass production and small‐scale production. We extend this discussion by giving analytical priority to markets as an institution distinct from firms and by interpreting markets from the perspectives of transaction costs and embeddedness, concepts normally deemed antagonistic to one another. Empirically, four case studies of timber auctions located in central and southern Japan are analyzed based on personal interviews with auction managers and participants within the context of broader trends in forestry. Three auctions feature ‘silent’ bidding and one involves open bidding. While the auctions exhibit varying characteristics, they continue to be the fulcrum of localized forestry systems, even as they are threatened by declining prices driven by imported wood and by restructurings within the Japanese solid wood sector. The continued resiliency of the flexible specialization model, and the auctions that are at its core, has important implications for forestry throughout Japan.

Key Messages This study identifies three types of agglomeration in the Japanese ramen restaurant industry. These clusters are known through various spatial vernacular cues: maps, images, stories, and other lore that circulate in mainstream, esoteric, and fan social network communities. Waseda University is a key local institution in shaping the reputation of Tokyo's most famous ramen cluster, centred on Takadanobaba Station.