We investigate the causal effect of patent rights on cumulative innovation, using large-scale data that approximate the …

We study the blocking effect of patents on follow-on innovation by others. We posit that follow-on innovation requires … freedom to operate (FTO), which firms typically obtain through a license from the patentee holding the original innovation …. Where licensing fails, follow-on innovation is blocked unless firms gain FTO through patent invalidation. Using large …

-in-differences design to causally identify the short-run impact of COVID-19 on innovation spending in 2020 and expected innovation spending … substantially reduced innovation expenditure not only in the first year of the pandemic (2020) but also in the two subsequent years …, indicating ’Long–Covid’ effects on innovation. In 2020, innovation expenditure fell by 4.7 % due to the pandemic. In 2022 …