TY  - JOUR
AU  - Lerner,Josh
TI  - The Litigation of Financial Innovations
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 14324
PY  - 2008
Y2  - September 2008
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14324
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14324.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Josh Lerner
Harvard Business School
Rock Center 214
Boston, MA 02163
Tel: 617/495-6065
Fax: 617/496-7357
E-Mail: jlerner@hbs.edu
AB  - This paper examines the litigation of patents relating to financial products and services. I show that these grants are being litigated at a rate 27 to 39 times greater than that of patents as a whole. The patents being litigated are disproportionately those issued to individuals and to smaller, private entities, as well as those whose features may proxy for higher quality. Larger entities are disproportionately targeted in litigation. I discuss how the findings are in large part consistent with the theoretical literature on the economics of litigation.
ER  -