One of the most puzzling findings in the empirical analysis of firms’ patenting behaviour is the low proportion of patenting firms in the population of registered companies. Also, there is evidence suggesting that firms may not patent all patentable inventions and that this behaviour differs...

Inter partes review (IPR) is one of a number of mechanisms for eliminating improper patents through review of patents post-grant. While the purpose of IPRs is to provide a cheaper, more expert alternative to litigation for screening out bad patents, the devil is in the design details. For...

In England and Wales legal procedures with regard to patents are said to be both lengthy and costly. Nonetheless, at present there is little factual empirical evidence on procedural and costs issues in the UK. This makes it difficult to comprehend the state of patent litigation within the wider...

We analyze the impact of the probabilistic nature of patents on the functioning of Germany’s bifurcated patent litigation system where infringement and validity of a patent are decided independently by different courts. We show that bifurcation creates situations in which a patent is held...

Commons and pledge structures have been used to achieve various goals of patent holders, including the advancement of social and philanthropic aims. The article analyzes the formation and structure of a widely acclaimed effort to pool patents for the promotion of green/clean technologies – the...

We analyze the extent to which private defensive litigation insurance deters patent assertion by non-practicing entities (NPEs). We study the effect that a patent-specific defensive insurance product,offered by a leading litigation insurer, had on the litigation behavior of insured patents'...

This study examines how the ownership structure of corporations shapes their responses to technological change. We predict that mixed ownership, a situation in which, following privatization, the shares of a company are partly privately held and partly held by the government, is associated with...

Despite the pervasiveness of patent licensing in many industries, there is a dearth of publicly available information on licensing transactions. Notably, information on price–i.e., the royalty agreed upon by licensor and licensee–is purposefully kept secret. We assess to what extent...