A certain sequence of innovations in a vertically differentiated good is considered. Two firms are engaged in a series of bidding games to acquire the (infinitely- lived) patents to these. Managerial diseconomies restrict firms to producing a single good which is chosen optimally from the set of...

This paper uses a natural extension of Lee and Wilde's (1980) model to show that the outcome of technological competition between firms (or countries) depends on the resolution of two forces: the profit incentive and the competitive threat. Using a duopoly model of a patent race, the paper...