We investigate the causal effect of patent rights on cumulative innovation, using large-scale data that approximate the … patent universe in its technological and economic variety. We introduce a novel instrumental variable for patent invalidation … that exploits personnel scarcity in post-grant opposition at the European Patent Office. We find that patent invalidation …

. Where licensing fails, follow-on innovation is blocked unless firms gain FTO through patent invalidation. Using large …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 …

. While the individual effects of engaging in the listed practices on firm innovation are well-understood, the existing … sample of innovation-active firms from the German Community Innovation Survey, which includes information on the development … of standards, enhanced with information on firms' engagement in patenting and publishing. We find that 26% of innovation …

product development process. HCs do not invest more into innovation, but achieve higher innovation success. The higher …

We study the evolution of patenting in China from 1985-2019. We use a Large Language Model to measure patent importance … based on patent abstracts and classify patent ownership using a comprehensive business registry. We highlight four insights …. First, average patent importance declined from 2000-2010 but has increased more recently. Second, private Chinese firms …

We study the causal impact of invalidating marginally valid patents during post-grant opposition at the European Patent … participation of a patent's original examiner in the opposition division as an instrument. We find a disciplinary effect of … invalidation: Affected inventors file 20% fewer patent applications in the decade after the decision. This effect is entirely …

type of independent patent claims, we show an increase in the annual share of process claims of about 25 percentage points … (from below 10% in 1920). This rise in process intensity is not limited to a few patent classes but can be observed across a … shorter than product claims; but this gap has narrowed since the 1970s. These patterns suggest that the patent breadth and …

remaining career. We use European patent data for a period of 32 years for 1240 German inventors. The patent data are linked … of inventors applying for the first patent after completing education or being in the highest quartile of citations … received for the first patent. The higher career productivity seems to be a consequence of higher individual ability rather …

From a firm’s perspective two competing forces are driving the decision to invest in innovation. On the one hand …, innovative performance is an important driver of profitability and growth. On the other hand, investments in innovation suffer … firms may protect their inventions by means of intellectual property rights, such as patents. By taking out a patent …