Patent Protection: Of What Value and for How Long? / Jean Olson Lanjouw.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lanjouw, Jean Olson.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w4475.

NBER working paper series no. w4475

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Patent Protection

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 1993.

Summary:

Empirical estimates of the private value of patent protection are found for four technology area - computers, textiles, combustion engines, and pharmaceuticals - using new patent data for West Germany, 1953-1988. Patentees must pay to keep their patents in force. A dynamic stochastic discrete choice model of optimal renewal decisions is developed incorporating both learning about an innovation and the market as well as the possibility of infringements. The evolution of the distribution of returns over the life of a group of patents is calculated for each technology using a minimum distance simulation estimator. Results indicate that learning is completed within 6 years, that obsolescence is rapid, and that the distributions of patent value are very skewed. Research and development (R&D) expenditures are calculated and patent protection as an implicit subsidy to investment in R&D discussed.

Notes:

Print version record

September 1993.