Notice failure revisited: Evidence on the use of virtual patent marking / Gaétan de Rassenfosse.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

de Rassenfosse, Gaétan.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w24288.

NBER working paper series no. w24288

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Notice failure revisited

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2018.

Summary:

One source of uncertainty in the patent system relates to the difficulty in identifying products that are protected with a patent. This paper studies the adoption by U.S. patentees of "virtual patent marking," namely the online provision of constructive notice to the public that an article is patented. It proposes a simple model of the decision to adopt patent marking and empirically examines factors that affect adoption. Data suggest that about 12 percent of patent holders overall provide virtual marking information (and perhaps about 25 percent of commercially active assignees). Econometric analysis suggests that the most discriminant factor of the adoption of virtual marking is the size of the patent portfolio. The likelihood of adoption increases with portfolio size, consistent with evidence that firms with a larger patent portfolio are more likely to be infringed.

Notes:

Print version record

February 2018.