Publication records

Patent-based measures are frequently used indicators in empirical research on innovation and technology as well as firms’ strategies and organizational choices. We contribute to their validation in a unique setting that allows us to combine data on product commercialization in the pharmaceutical industry with the underlying patents on the level of individual products. Our findings draw a complex picture regarding the information content of various patent indicators are bear important implications for the use and the proper interpretation of these indicators in settings where they are employed to describe outcomes beyond the patent system itself.

With permission of the Academy of Management

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 caught up in patent thickets. Using data on opposition against patents at the European Patent Office we show that opposition decreases in fields in which many others profit from patent revocations. Moreover, in fields with a large number of mutually blocking patents the incidence of opposition is sharply reduced, particularly among large firms and firms that are caught up directly in patent thickets. These findings indicate that post-grant patent review may not constitute an effective correction device for erroneous patent grants in technologies affected by either patent thickets or highly dispersed patent ownership.

With permission of the Academy of Management