Law and Economics of Litigation: New Insights from Patents

Abstract:     
We study how patent, rm and judge characteristics influence the duration of patent disputes. We derive hypotheses from a theoretical framework and test the predictions using a hand-collected dataset on patent litigation. We show that the value of a patent increases the duration of a case, while lower uncertainty, measured by judge experience and patent characteristics, decreases the duration. The presence of large firms has a positive influence on the settlement time. Contrary, non-practicing entities, often referred as patent trolls, reduce the settlement time. The results give further insights to the analysis of patent litigation but also to litigation in general.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 18

Keywords: litigation, patents, settlement, asymmetric Information, bargaining

JEL Classification: K0, K41, C78

working papers series