Pendency and Thickets

Marek Dietl, Łukasz Skrok, P Benalcazar, M Gątkowski and Katharine Rockett

Economics Discussion Papers from University of Essex, Department of Economics

Abstract: This article empirically investigates the results of an expert-based method to identify 'patent thickets' for a unique USPTO dataset. The research aims to identify the overall effect of patent thickets on patent pendency. We find that patents belonging to a thicket are, on average, granted protection sooner. At the same time, we show that patent groups with higher thicket frequency have higher average pendency time, as do patents within larger thickets. Both suggest spillovers in processing time across patents. We additionally find mild support that the first patent in a thicket has a longer pendency period.

Date: 2017
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ino and nep-ipr
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