We show that the common wisdom suggesting higher investment in innovation under a stronger patent protection may not be … slope of the marginal cost of undertaking innovation is moderate, investment in innovation is maximised at a patent … innovation. We also show that welfare is maximised neither at the strongest patent protection nor at the weakest patent …

This paper investigates the effect of different patent regimes on R&D investment and social welfare in a duopoly market … with uncertain R&D process. We find that strong patent protection increases R&D investment of at least one firm but whether … both firms' R&D investment will be more under strong patent protection is ambiguous. While ex-ante welfare is more likely …

the licensing contracts on social welfare and optimal patent protection …

-market concentration compared to the situation with patent protection. Hence, even if we ignore the innovation inducing role of patent …We challenge the common wisdom that patent protection (compared to no or weak patent protection) makes the consumers … worse off by reducing product-market competition unless it increases innovation significantly. We show that the absence of …