We develop a dynamic structural model of patent screening incorporating incentives, intrinsic motivation, and multi … new measure of patent distance that enables us to study strategic decisions by applicants and examiners. Our model … quality of screening. We quantify the social costs of patent screening and find that the annual social cost of the existing …

Critics claim that patent screening is ineffective, granting low-quality patents that impose unnecessary social costs …. We develop an integrated framework, involving patent office examination, fees, and endogenous validity challenges in the … courts, to study patent screening both theoretically and quantitatively. In our model, some inventions require the patent …