The Future is Under the Glass: Digital Design Protection and Appropriation Strategy

Egbert Amoncio, Alexander Cuntz and Carsten Fink

No 97, WIPO Economic Research Working Papers from World Intellectual Property Organization - Economics and Statistics Division

Abstract: The paper examines how legal certainty shapes protection and appropriation of digital designs such as icons, animations, and layouts. Leveraging the 2012 Apple v. Samsung verdict as a decisive clarification of their protectability and enforceability, we analyze USPTO design patents from 2009–2015 using a matched difference-in-differences approach. We show that legal certainty reduces due diligence costs far more than monitoring costs. This asymmetry lowers the threshold for securing protection, leading to a 9 percent increase in digital design patents. At the same time, appropriation shifted away from licensing toward transfers, with the effect strongest in dense design spaces where monitoring costs remain high despite increased legal certainty. These findings extend transaction cost theory by showing that legal certainty unevenly reduces transaction costs, which in turn alters protection thresholds and shifts appropriation strategies. They also demonstrate how policy changes influence innovation when value is created “under the glass.â€

Keywords: Digital designs; Design patents; Appropriation; Transaction costs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K11 O31 O34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ipr and nep-law
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