This paper explores a licensor's choice between charging a per-unit royalty or a …fixed fee when her innovation is covered by a weak patent, i.e. a patent that is likely to be invali- dated by a court if challenged. Using a general model where the nature of competition is not speci…ed, we show...

The paper investigates the choice of a licensing mechanism by the holder of a patent whose validity may be challenged. Focusing fi…rst on weak patents, i.e. patents that have a high probability of being invalidated by a court if challenged, we show that the patent holder fi…nds it optimal to...

This paper investigates the choice of a licensing mechanism by the holder of a patent whose validity is uncertain. We provide sufficient conditions of a general nature under which the licensor prefers to use a per-unit royalty contract. In particular we show that this is the case for the holders...