The Decision to Patent (eBook)

Acknowledgements 8
Contents 10
List of Symbols 12
Chapter 1 Introduction 15
1.1 The Patent System 20
1.1.1 Disclosure Requirement 24
1.1.2 Research Exemption 26
1.1.3 Patent Duration 27
1.1.4 Patent Scope 27
1.1.5 Inventive Step 28
1.2 The Economic Analysis of the Propensity to Patent 31
1.2.1 The Decision to Patent in the Light of the Protective Effect 32
1.2.2 The Decision to Patent in the Light of the Disclosure Effect 34
1.3 A New Theoretical Approach to the Propensity to Patent 39
1.4 Empirical Insights on the Propensity to Patent 43
1.5 Outline of the Book 48
Chapter 2 The Decision to Patent with Vertical Product Differentiation 50
2.1 The Model Setup 51
2.2 Price Competition 53
2.3 Quality Choices 55
2.3.1 Quality Choices if the Invention is Kept Secret 58
2.3.2 Quality Choices if the Invention is Patented 63
2.4 The Patenting Decision 66
2.5 Licensing 70
2.6 Welfare Considerations 76
2.6.1 Welfare with Secrecy 77
2.6.2 Welfare with a Patent 77
2.6.3 Welfare with Licensing 78
2.6.4 Welfare Maximizing Appropriation Choice 78
2.7 Concluding Remarks 80
Chapter 3 An Empirical Investigation of the Decision to Patent with Vertical Product Differentiation 83
3.1 Hypotheses and Their Empirical Implementation 83
3.2 Sample Definition 86
3.3 Variable Definition 88
3.4 Empirical Results 92
3.5 Concluding Remarks 97
Chapter 4 The Decision to Patent with Horizontal Product Differentiation 99
4.1 The Model Setup 101
4.2 Price Competition 103
4.3 Market Entry 109
4.4 The Patenting Decision 114
4.5 Licensing 121
4.6 Welfare Considerations 124
4.6.1 Welfare with Secrecy 124
4.6.2 Welfare with a Patent 125
4.6.3 Welfare with Licensing 129
4.6.4 Welfare Maximizing Appropriation Choice 129
4.7 Concluding Remarks 132
Chapter 5 An Empirical Investigation of the Decision to Patent with Horizontal Product Differentiation 135
5.1 Hypotheses and Their Empirical Implementation 135
5.2 Sample and Variable Definition 138
5.3 Empirical Results 139
5.4 Concluding Remarks 142
Chapter 6 Summary and Discussion 144
Appendix A Proofs of Propositions, Lemmata andCorollaries in Chapter 2 154
Appendix B Definition of Industry Dummies 160
Appendix C Proofs of Propositions and Lemmata inChapter 4 161
References 168