Applying novel datasets, Fabian Gäßler analyzes how key aspects of the current patent system in Europe and Germany, respectively, affect patent enforcement and patent trade. In particular, he shows what factors determine court selection in patent litigation and how the jurisdictional...

This is a survey of economic analysis of law, that is, of the emerging field under which the standard tools of microeconomics are employed to identify the effects of legal rules and their social desirability. Five basic subject areas are covered. The first is legal liability for harm. Here we...

We investigate whether patents that are jointly held by legally independent companies help sustain product-market collusion. We use a simple model of repeated interactions to show that joint patents can serve collusive purposes. Our model generates two testable predictions: when joint patents...