Illuminating Innovation: From Patent Racing to Patent War

Innovation Systems as Patent Networks:

Research in the domain of ‘Innovation Studies’ has been claimed to allow for the study of how technology will develop in the future. Some suggest that the National and Sectoral Innovation Systems literature has become bogged down, however, into case studies of how specific institutions affect innovation in a specific country. A useful notion for policy makers in particular, Balzat & Hanusch (20...

Patent Assertion and U.s. Innovation

Patent statistics: A good indicator for innovation in China? Patent subsidy program impacts on patent quality

This study investigates whether patent subsidy programs to promote regional innovations have generated a large volume of low-quality applications in China, resulting in biased patent statistics as an indicator for innovations. We find that subsidies on patent filing fees encouraged the filing of low-quality patents, resulting in a decreased grant rate. Although grant-contingent rewards increase...

Competition, innovation and racing for priority at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

When two inventors file patent applications with overlapping, or “interfering” claims, the U.S. patent rights are awarded to the applicant who establishes priority of invention. Patent interference cases are litigated at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences. The cases offer a unique window into competition between firms in research and innovation. Thi...

Patent Thickets and the Market for Innovation: Evidence from Settlement of Patent Disputes

We study how fragmentation of patent rights (‘patent thickets’) and the formation of the Court of Appeal for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) affected the duration of patent disputes, and thus the speed of technology diffusion through licensing. We develop a model of patent litigation which predicts faster settlement agreements when patent rights are fragmented and when there is less uncertainty abou...