We analyze the effect of patent thickets on entry into technology areas by firms in the UK. We present a model that describes incentives to enter technology areas characterized by varying technological opportunity, complexity of technology, and the potential for hold-up in patent thickets. We...

This report analyses whether entry of UK enterprises into patenting in a technology area is affected by patent thickets in the technology area.The aim is to contribute to our understanding of the role of patent thickets as a barrier to entry into new technologies for UK enterprises, in...

This report explores the problem of "cluttering" of trade mark registers. The report consists of two parts:The first presents a conceptual discussion of “cluttering” of trade mark registers.The second part provides an exploratory empirical analysis of trade mark applications at the UK...

We analyze the effect of patent thickets on entry into technology areas by firms in the UK. We present a model that describes incentives to enter technology areas characterized by varying technological opportunity, complexity, and the potential for hold-up due to the presence of patent thickets....

The aim is to contribute to our understanding of the role of patent thickets as a barrier to entry into new technologies for UK enterprises, in particular small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).The report consists of several parts:A review of the literature on patent thickets, including the...

This research is the initial investigation into the relationship between holders of registered IPRs and growth performance of firms, measured in terms of growth in assets, employment, or sales. The results are not intended to be considered in isolation but were used to inform ‘The use of...

We analyze the effect of patent thickets on entry into technology areas by firms in the UK. We present a model that describes incentives to enter technology areas characterized by varying technological opportunity, complexity, and the potential for hold-up due to the presence of patent thickets....

This paper provides a direct measure of the density of patent thickets based on patent citations. We discuss the algorithm that generates the measure and present descriptive results validating it. Moreover, we identify technology areas particularly affected by patent thickets.

Post-grant validity challenges at patent offices rely on the private initiative of third parties to correct mistakes made by patent offices. We hypothesize that incentives to bring post-grant validity challenges are reduced when many firms benefit from revocation of a patent and when firms are...

This paper examines which firms from a heterogeneous pool are more likely to join together and form a research joint venture (RJV). It differs from previous contributions as it introduces a set of realistic hypotheses on the characteristics of research co-operation and information sharing....