The Patent Troll Business: An Efficient model to enforce IPR?

Tim Pohlmann and Marieke Opitz

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Patent trolls have many faces, since the media uses this expression in various ways. The patent troll phenomenon thus seems to be an ambiguous term that is discussed in several directions. This paper reveals that a patent troll as such has no distinct shape or appearance. Our analysis redeems a troll classification solely from firms’ market position, such as being non-practicing, and shows that a patent troll business can only be defined by the respective activities to enforce IPR. Using 10 cases, of which five are treated in detail, the analysis reveals a distinct typology of the troll business. This paper is furthermore able to identify troll behavior to be: a) an efficient mechanism to enforce IP rights and b) a strategy that yields excessive license fees and causes inefficient negotiation costs.

Keywords: Patent Trolls; Patent Sharks Patent Strategies; Patent Failure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K00 M10 O34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-11-01, Revised 2010-12-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ino, nep-ipr and nep-pr~
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/27342/2/MPRA_paper_27342.pdf original version (application/pdf)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/31923/6/MPRA_paper_31923.pdf revised version (application/pdf)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/47262/1/MPRA_paper_47262.pdf revised version (application/pdf)

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