Digital designs - that is, designs for display on electronic screens - have recently burst onto the intellectual property (IP) stage. While in the U.S. a smattering of legal studies have recently addressed the question of digital design as a copyright-, trademark- and patent-eligible subject...

Patent trolls appropriate profits from innovation solely by enforcing patents against infringers.They are often characterized as relying on low-quality patents, an assessment that, if correct,would imply that eradicating such patents would effectively terminate the troll business. Inthis paper,...

We investigate the role of patents and alliances as venture capital selection criteria in the screening of business proposals. Our analyses address two research gaps. First, we provide evidence on the importance of patents and alliances in raising venture capital, two resources that have...

Open innovation is often facilitated by strong intellectual property rights (IPRs), but it may also function, and even be boosted, when firms deliberately waive some of their IPRs. Extant literature has pointed out the potential benefits of such behavior, but falls short of explaining what...

Observable resources, particularly patents, alliances, and team experience, are known to impact a start-up's ability to attract venture capital financing. In this context they potentially fulfill a two-fold function: as productive assets and, likely, as signals of characteristics of a venture...

Digital designs – that is, designs for display on electronic screens – have recently burst onto the intellectual property (IP) stage. While in the U.S. a smattering of legal studies have recently addressed the question of digital design as a copyright-, trademark- and patent-eligible subject...

One of the most neglected aspects of strategic patenting behavior is the timing of the pre-examination phase. While an expeditious grant is often desirable, applicants may also benefit from a prolonged period of pre-examination pendency to create uncertainty or to otherwise improve their...

We propose a unifying framework for the role of visible product design as a driver of interfirm competition, covering aspects of both value creation and value capture. We introduce the concept of “relative” product differentiation and theorize how design choices, by affecting consumer...

Digital designs – that is, designs for display on electronic screens – have recently burst onto the intellectual property stage. While in the U.S. a smattering of legal studies have recently addressed the question of digital design as a copyright-, trademark- and patent-eligible subject...

The Internet of Things (IoT) relies heavily on wireless communication technologies, which are covered by thousands of standard-essential patents (SEPs). Numerous applications of IoT technologies are being developed, frequently coming from entrepreneurial firms. The high degree of fragmentation...