TY  - JOUR
AU  - Lanjouw,Jean O.
AU  - Schankerman,Mark
TI  - Stylized Facts of Patent Litigation: Value, Scope and Ownership
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 6297
PY  - 1997
Y2  - December 1997
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6297
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6297.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Jenny Lanjouw
Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC  20036
Tel: 202/797-6275
Fax: 202/797-2968
E-Mail: jlanjouw@brook.edu

Mark Schankerman
Department of Economics, R.516
London School of Economics
Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE
UK
Tel: 442079557518
E-Mail: M.Schankerman@lse.ac.uk
AB  - This paper investigates the characteristics of litigated patents by combining for the first" time information about patent case filings from the U.S. district courts and detailed data from the" U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.  We construct a series of indicators for the factors which the" theoretical literature suggests contribute to litigation: the frequency of disputes asymmetry of stakes, the structure of information, and costs. Compared to a random sample of" U.S. patents from the same cohorts and technology areas, we find that more valuable patents and" those with domestic owners are considerably more likely to be involved in litigation.  Patents" owned by individuals are at least as likely to be the subject of a case as corporate patents and" litigation is particularly frequent in new technology areas.  We interpret the results with reference" to theoretical models of litigation and settlement and discuss what they suggest about the effect" of patent litigation on the incentives to invest in R&D.
ER  -