The Relationship between Patenting Motives and Pendency Durations
36 Pages Posted: 10 Mar 2014
Date Written: October 31, 2013
Abstract
One of the most neglected aspects of strategic patenting behavior is the timing of the pre-examination phase. While an expeditious grant is often desirable, applicants may also benefit from a prolonged period of pre-examination pendency to create uncertainty or to otherwise improve their position in the competition. We build on work on strategic patenting behavior, and analyze whether the different strategic motives of applicants to file patent applications determine the duration of patent pendency. To do so, we exploit a distinctive feature of the German patent system, i.e. deferred examination. We base our analysis on original survey data on 186 German inventions. These data are matched with comprehensive register information on patents filed at the GPTO, which provides unique information to explore our topic. We find that motives related to gaining time to make decisions, increase pendency periods. Motives that require legal certainty affect pendency timing negatively. Our data also provide initial evidence that motives which rely on a broad scope of patent protection tend to delay lapse decisions. Our study has implications for managers, policy makers, and scholars.
Keywords: patents, pendency, strategic patenting
JEL Classification: O34, L20, M20
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