computer software industry. We focus on two key aspects: patent portfolio size which affects bargaining power in patent … disputes, and the fragmentation of patent rights (.patent thickets.) which increases the transaction costs of enforcement. We … find evidence that both strategic patenting and Ramp;D spillovers strongly affect innovation and market value of software …

that European Patent Convention expressively prohibits software patenting has not been a major problem for firms and … accorded by the European Patent Office (EPO) and, to our knowledge, more than 30,000 software patents have been accorded so far … granting procedure and by the fact that firms belonging to the software sector do not apply for patent protection. Finally …

software firms still do not patent, most software patents are obtained by a few large firms in the software industry or in …This report examines changes in the patenting behavior of the software industry since the 1990s. It finds that most … other industries, and the risk of litigation from software patents continues to increase dramatically. Given these findings …

doctrines of enablement and written description. Recent changes that make patent law amenable to software have produced a flood … relatively few valid software patents. Optimal software patent doctrine would constrain scope to deal with patent thicket while … an important input to subsequent innovation, the exclusive rights conferred by a patent may also impose significant costs …

The rivalry between developers of open source and proprietary software encourages open source developers to court users … may choose liberal license terms such as those of the Berkeley Software Distribution as proprietary developers will then … find it easier to adopt her standard in their products. If she wants to promote the use of open source software per se, she …

software firms still do not patent, most software patents are obtained by a few large firms in the software industry or in …This report examines changes in the patenting behavior of the software industry since the 1990s. It finds that most … other industries, and the risk of litigation from software patents continues to increase dramatically. Given these findings …

Computer software is a huge, worldwide industry, one in which the United States has become the dominant force. The … maturation of the software industry has led to dramatic productivity gains, permitting businesses and individuals to accomplish … of software producers to prevent broad, unauthorized use of their products. Well-developed markets exist for used copies …

two modes of production, the proprietary model where entrepreneurs sell software to the users, and the open source model … where users participate in software development. I show that the OS model of production may be more efficient from the point …

The rivalry between developers of open source and proprietary software encourages open source developers to court users … may choose liberal license terms such as those of the Berkeley Software Distribution as proprietary developers will then … find it easier to adopt her standard in their products. If she wants to promote the use of open source software per se, she …

.e. software patenting. To this purpose we present a novel database of software patents providing a reliability check. According to … that, more than 30 000 software patents have been granted so far to both European and Non-European companies. We … investigate the relevant factors explaining firm-level software patenting at the EPO. Software patents are mainly applied by …