Stylized Facts of Patent Litigation: Value, Scope and Ownership
نویسندگان
چکیده
This paper investigates the characteristics of litigated patents by combining for the firsttime information about patent case filings from the U.S. district courts and detailed datafrom the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. We construct a series of indicators for thefactors which the theoretical literature suggests contribute to litigation: frequency ofdisputes, the size and asymmetry of stakes, the structure of information, and costs.Compared to a random sample of U.S. patents from the same cohorts and technologyareas, we find that more valuable patents and those with domestic owners areconsiderably more likely to be involved in litigation. Patents owned by individuals are atleast as likely to be the subject of a case as corporate patents and litigation isparticularly frequent in new technology areas. We interpret the results with reference totheoretical models of litigation and settlement and discuss what they suggest about theeffect of patent litigation on the incentives to invest in R&D;.
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