The Patent Litigation Explosion

The Patent Litigation Explosion

This paper provides the first look at patent litigation hazards for public firms during the 80s and 90s. Consistent with our model, litigation is more likely when prospective defendants spend more on R&D, when prospective plaintiffs acquire more patents and when firms are larger and technologically close. Public firms face dramatically increased hazards of litigation as plaintiffs and even more...

Exploring the Patent Explosion

This paper looks more closely at the sources of patent growth in the United States since 1984. It confirms that the increase is largely due to US patenters, with an earlier surge in Asia, and some increase in Europe. Growth has taken place in all technologies, but not in all industries, being concentrated in the electrical, electronics, computing, and scientific instruments industries. It then ...

Predatory patent litigation

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Patent Litigation with Endogenous Disputes

The Private Costs of Patent Litigation

This paper estimates the total cost of patent litigation. We use a large sample of stock market event studies around the date of lawsuit filings for US public firms from 1984-99. Even though most lawsuits settle, we find that the total costs of lawsuits are large compared to estimated legal fees, estimates of patent value, and R&D spending. By the late 1990s, alleged infringers bore expected co...