This paper analyzes firms’ choices regarding the geographic scope of patent protection within the European patent … system. We develop an econometric model at the patent level to quantify the impact of office fees and translation costs on … firms’ decision to validate a patent in a particular country once it has been granted by the EPO. These costs have been …

This paper analyzes firms’ choices regarding the geographic scope of patentprotection within the European patent system …. We develop an econometric modelat the patent level to quantify the impact of office fees and translation costs onfirms …’ decision to validate a patent in a particular country once it has been grantedby the EPO. These costs have been disregarded in …

for short) of 9,017 patents granted by theEuropean Patent Office (EPO) between 1993 and 1997, located in France, Germany …