This paper shows that firms engage in horizontal mergers and acquisitions to pre-empt competition in technology markets. Making use of the patent application procedure at the European Patent Office we introduce a measure for potential entry barriers in technology markets.

We investigate whether standard indicators can distinguish between “wacky” patents and a control group. Forward citations are good predictors of importance. However, “wacky” patents have higher originality, generality and citation lags, suggesting that these indicators should be...