By influencing the incentives to innovate, the strengthening of patents may affect economic growth in important way. An important question for many countries is whether patent law reforms induce more innovation. This paper examines the role of patents in innovation, utilizing EU data on R&D investment, patent protection index and other country-specific characteristics spanning 1992-2000. However, in our estimations, we find no evidence of an increase in R&D spending that might plausibly be attributed to the strengthening of patents.