Intellectual Property →
- 21 Nov 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
Intellectual Property Rights Protection, Ownership, and Innovation: Evidence from China
As China’s top leaders promote innovation as the key to the country’s sustained economic growth, the extent to which the state can drive innovation without sound institutions and economic incentives remains in question. The evidence in this study of innovation and intellectual property rights (IPR) protection strongly supports the view that effective economic institutions matter, even in China. In order to successfully transition the country from a development model dependent on cheap labor and physical investments to one that is innovation-driven, these results suggest that the role of the private sector will be crucial. Private firms are more innovative both in terms of quantity and quality of patents, and are more so in cities with strong IPR protection.
- 18 Nov 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
Innovation Network
Despite recent advances that measure how the technological development processes in innovative fields link with each other, our understanding of how progress in one technological area links to prior advances in upstream technological fields has been limited. The authors’ analysis and mapping of 1.8 million U.S. patents and their citation properties shows that a stable innovation network acts as a conduit for a cumulative process of technological and scientific progress. Upstream technological developments play an important role in the future pace and direction of patenting in downstream fields. This finding implies that if R&D slackens in one period the effects will still be felt years later in downstream fields.
- 01 Nov 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
Patent Disclosures and Standard-Setting
Technological standards are a central component of the modern network economy. Standard setting organizations (SSOs) play a variety of roles. One of the most important is ensuring the disclosure of relevant intellectual property—in particular, potentially essential patents—prior to the key decisions about a proposed standard. This study finds that large downstream firms are more likely to make generic disclosures to SSOs. Higher quality patents are more likely to be disclosed via specific disclosures.
- 26 Sep 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
Technological Leadership (de)Concentration: Causes in ICTE
The market structure for the Information and Communications Technology equipment industry has undergone enormous changes in the last four decades. This paper characterizes long-term trends by analyzing the concentration in patents from 1976 to 2010 and comparing measured changes against popular assumptions about the size and scale of changes in innovation.
- 23 May 2016
- Research & Ideas
A Little Understanding Motivates Copyright Abusers to Pay Up
Many Internet users don't give a second thought to copying and reusing an image. Hong Luo and Julie Holland Mortimer explain how copyright holders can gently persuade abusers to do the right thing. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 19 May 2016
- Research Event
Crowdsourcing, Patent Trolls, and Other Research Insights Highlighted at Harvard Business School Symposium
The 2016 Faculty Research Symposium looked at current and potential collaborations between HBS and Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 22 Jan 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
Financial Patent Quality: Finance Patents After State Street
Although the past few decades have seen a surge in patents of inventions related to financial services, concerns have been raised about the quality of those patents. New research shows that finance patents in aggregate cite fewer non-patent publications and especially fewer academic publications.
- 20 Jan 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
The Bright Side of Patents
We examine whether patents help startups grow and succeed using detailed micro data on all patent applications filed by startups at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office since 2001 and approved or rejected before 2014. We find that patent approvals help startups create jobs, grow their sales, innovate, and reward their investors.
- 29 Aug 2014
- Working Paper Summaries
Patent Trolls
Clearly defined property rights are essential for well-functioning markets. In the case of intellectual property (IP), however, property rights are complex to define; unlike ownership of physical assets, the space of ideas is difficult to clearly delineate. A solution employed by the United States and many other countries is the patent-a property right allowing an idea's owner sole commercialization rights for a period of time. A new organizational form, the non-practicing entity (NPE), has recently emerged as a major driver of IP litigation. NPEs amass patents not for the sake of producing commercial products, but in order to prosecute infringement on their patent portfolios. In this paper the authors provide the first large-sample evidence on the litigation behavior of NPEs. They show precisely which corporations NPEs target, when NPEs litigate, and how NPE litigation impacts the innovative activity of targeted firms. NPEs behave, on average, as patent trolls. This means that NPEs target firms that are flush with cash or that have just had positive cash shocks. NPEs even target conglomerate firms that earn their cash from segments having nothing to do with their allegedly infringing patents. The stakes of how to organize intellectual property disputes are massive. If the United States becomes a less desirable place to innovate because NPEs are left unchecked, innovation and human capital, and the returns to that innovation and human capital, will likely flee overseas. But innovators will also leave if they feel they are not are protected from large, well-funded interests that might infringe on innovative capital without recourse. Key concepts include: The rise of non-practicing entities (NPEs) has sparked a debate regarding their value and their impact on innovation. This study provides evidence that NPEs do not protect innovators from large interests in the intellectual property space. On average, NPEs behave as patent trolls that chase cash and negatively impact future innovation. Policy should be to more carefully limit the power of NPEs or, in the framework of the authors' model, increase the cost of bringing suit against commercializers of innovative ideas. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 20 Aug 2014
- Research & Ideas
Dragging Patent Trolls Into the Light
New research by Lauren Cohen and colleagues shows that patent trolls are not just the stuff of fairy tales. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 11 Mar 2014
- Working Paper Summaries
Return Migration and Geography of Innovation in MNEs: A Natural Experiment of On-the-Job Learning of Knowledge Production by Local Workers Reporting to Return Migrants
Since the mid-1990s, a large number of multinational enterprises (MNEs) have set up research and development centers in China, India, and other emerging markets. Such MNEs face constraints in expanding their "geography of innovation" —that of producing and transferring knowledge across borders—because for the MNE knowledge is likely to be localized within larger, more established centers of knowledge production. How do MNEs in emerging markets circumvent this constraint? In this paper, the author uses personnel data from a Fortune 50 technology firm and studies the role of return migrants in facilitating patenting at the emerging market R&D center. The author also studies on-the-job learning of knowledge production by local employees who report to return migrants at an emerging-market R&D setting. The findings generate insights into the functioning of 'internal labor markets' of multinationals. The results are also important for managers: Given the great many Fortune 500 MNE R&D centers in countries such as China and India, and the large fraction of these centers managed by return migrants, the findings may assist those who set up and manage current and future MNE R&D centers. Key concepts include: This paper, one of the first empirical studies of skilled migration within a multinational enterprise, contributes to understanding return migration and the geography of innovation of MNEs. Return migrants and their direct reports file more patents than other local employees. (The author leverages a natural experiment to test for the latter.) Patents that have return migrants (or their direct reports) as inventors exhibit high patent citation rates, indicating that return migration is related to cross-border knowledge transfer. Local workers who report to return-migrant managers tend to benefit from on-the-job learning that they might not receive otherwise. For example, return migrant managers connect their direct reports with ideas and resources in the US headquarters; they also help their direct reports understand the patenting process at US headquarters. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 30 Jan 2014
- Working Paper Summaries
Modularity and Intellectual Property Protection
Modularity is a means of partitioning technical knowledge about a product or process. The authors investigate the impact of modularity on intellectual property protection by formally modeling the threat of expropriation by agents. The principal has three options to address this threat: doing nothing, licensing the focal IP ex ante, and paying agents to prevent their defection. The principal can influence the value of these options by modularizing the technical system and by hiring clans of agents, thus exploiting relationships among them. The paper also gives examples of how managers arrive at a strategy in practice. Overall, the study contributes to the theory of profiting from innovation in three ways: First, it shows how the innovator's best choice of action against expropriation by agents-doing nothing, licensing, or paying agents-derives from the characteristics of the system, i.e., the share of trustworthy agents, the number of agents, the intensity of competition, the size of clans, the number of modules, and the degree of complementarity. Second, the innovator can use clans and modularity to increase profits, and the paper shows how clans and the modular architecture of the system interact to either reinforce or mitigate each other. Third, social relationships and norms of fairness affect the normative implications of an analysis based on rational choice theory. Implications for managers are also discussed. Key concepts include: Modularity is a means of partitioning technical knowledge about a product or process. Modularity can be used reduce the cost and/or risk of agents' expropriating valuable IP. The authors' model can be used to understand the effects of, for example, screening and signaling in the hiring process, legal protection of intellectual property, and social norms of fairness. Managers' fundamental choices are (1) to protect the knowledge or not; and (2) to trust the agents or not. Relational contracts, that is, paying selected agents not to defect, makes it possible to protect knowledge and maintain a monopoly when agents are relatively untrustworthy. Trusting one's agents-what the authors have called "doing nothing"-is the most valuable course of action if it works, but is a risky strategy because trust can always be betrayed. Better screening and signaling technologies make it easier for the principal to trust his agents, but some residual risk always remains. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 16 Jan 2014
- Research & Ideas
Resolving Patent Disputes that Impede Innovation
Technical standards both spur innovation and protect the innovators, but abuses in the intellectual property protection system threaten US competitiveness. Josh Lerner and Jean Tirole discuss remedies. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 05 Dec 2013
- Op-Ed
Encourage Breakthrough Health Care by Competing on Products Rather Than Patents
For too long, the science behind breakthrough therapeutics has been locked behind patents held by universities. Richard Hamermesh proposes the market compete on solutions rather than intellectual property rights. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 04 Oct 2013
- Working Paper Summaries
Imperfect Information, Patent Publication, and the Market for Ideas
The market for ideas improves the innovation process by promoting division of labor between upstream inventors and downstream developers. Frictions such as asymmetric information and search costs may hinder the smooth functioning of the market and delay, or even block, mutually profitable transactions between buyers and sellers. In this paper, the authors study the effects of an important disclosure mechanism, the publication of patent applications, on mitigating these frictions and, thus, facilitating transactions in the market for ideas. In particular, they employ an important policy change in the American Inventors Protection Act (AIPA), which required that U.S. patent applications filed beginning on November 29, 2000 be published 18 months after the application date. Findings show that post-AIPA patents, on average, are licensed 8.5 months earlier than pre-AIPA inventions. This shortening of the licensing lag is economically significant, given the 20-year duration of U.S. patents, and can translate to millions of dollars in profits and licensing revenues. Key concepts include: Disclosure through patent publication facilitates transactions in the market for ideas, potentially through reducing frictions such as information asymmetries, search costs, and costs of evaluating competing ideas. For inventors that choose to license, 18-month publication accelerates licensing by 8.5 months on average. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 27 Aug 2013
- Working Paper Summaries
The Impact of Patent Wars on Firm Strategy: Evidence from the Global Smartphone Market
Patents and patent enforcement strategies have become an essential part of firms' competitive strategies: They are used as isolating mechanisms to protect intellectual property or as defense mechanisms to help obtain access to external innovations. Using data from the global smartphone market, the authors of this paper investigate the effect of escalated patent litigations—the so-called patent war—on firm strategy. The smartphone industry is a classic example of a business ecosystem, as participants in this industry are highly interconnected and this interconnectivity means that effects on some ecosystem participants are likely to extend to affect the rest. The authors' findings show that the efficacy of patent enforcement systems across markets plays a significant role in firm strategy during patent wars, and ultimately shapes the global competitive landscape. As the patent war intensifies, smartphone vendors, even those not directly involved in patent litigations, gradually shift their business foci to markets with weaker intellectual property (IP) rights protection. This shift, however, is attenuated for vendors with stronger technological capabilities and is more pronounced for vendors whose home markets have weak IP systems. Together, these changes shape the competitive landscape for platform competition. Key concepts include: This study enhances our understanding of patents, patent enforcement strategies, and the dynamics of patent wars in platform competition. Patent strategy and its enforcement are becoming increasingly important for value appropriation by innovators, similar to marketing and pricing. Firms use markets with strong IP protection as a natural battleground for their patent enforcement strategies, which leads to increased litigation risk for other participants in those markets. As the patent war intensifies, smartphone vendors focus their businesses more on markets with weak IP protection than on those with strong IP protection, even when they are not involved in patent litigation themselves. This effect is more pronounced for vendors with weak technological capabilities, and vendors that come from countries with weak IP systems. Consistent with the shift at the vendor level, Android market share grows faster in weak IP countries than in strong IP countries as the patent war intensifies. Interestingly, this result suggests that the patent war intended to hamper the proliferation of Android phones may have merely shifted the sales of Android phones to weak IP countries. Consequently, the Android system has flourished in weak IP countries. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 18 Sep 2012
- Working Paper Summaries
Risky Business: The Impact of Property Rights on Investment and Revenue in the Film Industry
Films are a risky business because much more is known about the quality and revenue potential of a film post-production than pre-production. Using rich data on the US film industry, this paper explores variation in property right allocations, investment choices, and film revenues to find empirical support for three predictions based on property rights theory. (1) Studios underinvest in the marketing of independent films relative to studio-financed films. (2) Because of underinvestment, independent films have lower revenues than comparable studio-financed films. (3) If production cost and marketing investment are complementary, underinvestment in marketing harms large-budget films more than small-budget films, making it more likely that large-budget films will be studio-financed. Kuppuswamy and Baldwin's paper may be the first to provide evidence that vertical integration affects the revenue of specific products through its impact on marketing investments in those products. Key concepts include: Studio-financed films receive superior marketing investments compared to independent films. The US film industry has two distinct property rights regimes: studio-financed films are produced and distributed by studios which take in the lion's share of revenue. In contrast, independent films are distributed by studios under revenue sharing agreements, which give studios 30-40% of the revenue stream. Under either regime, the allocation of scarce marketing resources is determined by and paid for by the studio. Studio-financed films offer higher marginal returns to marketing investments than independent films. Independent film distribution to theaters may be an institutional mechanism that allows studios to adapt to post-production information about the value of their own films vs. outside opportunities. This in turn justifies ex ante investment in the production of independent films (especially those with small budgets) despite their dampened revenue expectations. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 10 Sep 2012
- HBS Case
HBS Cases: Branding Yoga
As yoga's popularity has grown into a $6 billion business, a cast of successful entrepreneurs has emerged with their own styles of the ancient practice. Yet yoga's rise underscores a larger question for Professor Rohit Deshpandé: Is everything brandable? Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 13 Jan 2012
- Working Paper Summaries
The Impact of Modularity on Intellectual Property and Value Appropriation
Distributed innovation in open systems is an important trend in the modern global economy. In general, distributed innovation in open systems is made possible by the modularity of the underlying product or process. Carliss Y. Baldwin and Joachim Henkel provide a systematic analysis of value appropriation in closed and open modular systems, with implications for managers. Modular systems are made up of components that are highly interdependent within sub-blocks, called modules, and largely independent across those sub-blocks. Despite the technical benefits of modularity, history shows that it is not always straightforward for firms to capture value in a modular system. The paper argues that strategies for capturing value in an open, modular system must be formulated at the module level. But modularity is not a single strategy: it is rather a large set of strategic options and related tactics that can be deployed in different ways depending on the interplay of countervailing forces. Key concepts include: Special attention should always be paid to essential modules, which have the capacity to capture a portion of total system value. The IP related to some modules can and should be given away, although care must be taken not to let essential modules fall into the wrong hands. Other modules can be protected via state-sanctioned IP rights and/or agent payments under a relational contract. The modular architecture of the system should not be cast in stone until its IP dimensions are understood. After IP issues have been analyzed, some modules may need to be split further to concentrate agents' knowledge or reduce payments to outside owners of knowledge. Others may need to be made larger to make imitation and substitution more difficult. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
Challenging the Belief that Liability Laws Kill Medical Device Innovation
Many policymakers believe liability laws need reforming so that medical device makers are free to innovate without threat of costly lawsuits. But new research by Hong Luo and Alberto Galasso suggests innovation is not thwarted—just rechanneled. Open for comment; 0 Comments.