A generic drug maker that has been sued for infringing a patent on a branded drug will sometimes promise, as part of an … agreement settling the litigation, to delay selling its drug until as late as the expiration of the patent term. I adapt the … standard optimal patent term model to determine whether the delay in competition caused by such agreements raises consumer …

Classical patent literature assumes that patents grant well-defined legal rights to exclude others from practicing an … invention. In this scenario, start-up companies benefit from the exclusive right to commercialize patent-protected inventions … and the certification effect of patents which signals the ventures’ “quality” to investors. If the decision about patent …

consumer goods sector. We find that patent filings are positively associated with subsequent product innovation by firms, but … at least half of product innovation and growth comes from firms that never patent. We also find that market leaders use … innovation decisions. We show that the private value of a patent is particularly high for large firms as patents protect large …