Bargaining Failure and Freedom to Operate: Re-Evaluating the Effect of Patents on Cumulative Innovation
infojustice 2019-09-09
Summary:
[Fabian Gaessler, Dietmar Harhoff and Stefan Sorg] Abstract: We investigate the causal effect of patent rights on cumulative innovation, using large-scale data that approximate the patent universe in its technological and economic variety. We introduce a novel instrumental variable for patent invalidation that exploits personnel scarcity in post-grant opposition at the European Patent Office. We find that patent invalidation leads to a highly significant and sizable increase of follow-on inventions