Patent Intermediaries and Litigation

Mario Benassi () and Miryam Martin-Sanchez ()
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Mario Benassi: University of Milan
Miryam Martin-Sanchez: University of Milan

Chapter 7 in Patent Intermediaries, 2022, pp 157-183 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Originally, patents were designed to foster innovation while ensuring profit for innovators. However, an alternative way to monetize patents has emerged in recent decades: the exploitative use of patents in litigation. This new business model for intermediation is exercised primarily by PAEs. Metaphorically, PAEs can be portrayed as farmers engaged in a continuous cycle of sowing and reaping. The first stage, or “sowing time,” encompasses the pre-enforcement activities in which PAEs engage, that is, the acquiring and monitoring process through which they identify potential patent infringers. The second stage, or “harvesting time,” includes either the set of activities related to enforcement and settlement or the alternative of enforcement and verdict (post-enforcement activities). This chapter first analyzes this new business model for intermediation and then examines why operating companies are more vulnerable than PAEs in court. The chapter concludes with the reasons for and implications of blurring the limits between opportunistic litigation and predatory infringement.

Keywords: Patent assertion entities; Patent trolls; Market for patents; Litigation; Infringement; Enforcement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-031-10310-0_7

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-10310-0_7

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