Patent thickets, licensing and innovative performance

Iain Cockburn, Megan MacGarvie and Elisabeth Müller
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Elisabeth Mueller

ZEW Discussion Papers from ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research

Abstract: We examine the relationship between fragmented intellectual property (IP) rights and the innovative performance of firms, taking into consideration the role played by in-licensing of IP. We find that firms facing more fragmented IP landscapes have a higher probability of in-licensing. For firms with small patent portfolios we also find a positive association between fragmentation and licensing costs as a share of sales. We observe a negative relationship between IP fragmentation and innovative performance, but only for firms that engage in in-licensing. In contrast, greater IP fragmentation is associated with higher innovative performance for firms that do not in-license. Furthermore, the effects of fragmentation on innovation also appear to depend on the size of a firm’s patent portfolio. These results suggest that the effects of fragmentation of upstream IP rights are not uniform, and instead vary according to the characteristics of the downstream firm.

Keywords: patent thickets; licensing; innovative performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O31 O34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ino, nep-ipr, nep-pr~, nep-mic and nep-sbm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Patent thickets, licensing and innovative performance (2010)
Working Paper: Patent Thickets, Licensing and Innovative Performance (2008)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:zewdip:08101r

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