TY  - JOUR
AU  - Jensen,Richard A.
AU  - Thursby,Marie
TI  - Patent Races, Product Standards, and International Competition
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 3870
PY  - 1996
Y2  - March 1996
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3870
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3870.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Richard Jensen
Dept. of Economics 
University of Notre Dame
434 Flanner Hall
Notre Dame, IN 46556
E-Mail: richard.jensen.24@nd.edu

Marie C. Thursby
College of Management
Georgia Institute of Technology
800 West Peachtree Street, NW
Atlanta, GA 30308-1149
Tel: 404/894-6249
Fax: 404/385-4894
E-Mail: marie.thursby@mgt.gatech.edu
AB  - We examine anticipatory product standards intended to improve the strategic position of firms in an international patent race where firms do R&D to develop products that are close substitutes. The effects of a standard are shown to depend on the way the standard is specified, which firm develops which product, and on the order in which products are discovered. Simple standards are, in general, time inconsistent because of consumer losses that occur when products ruled out by the standard are discovered before the product set as the standard. A state contingent standard is shown to be time consistent when compulsory licensing by the foreign firm is introduced.
ER  -