Patent Protection: Of What Value and for How Long?

78 Pages Posted: 19 Jul 2000 Last revised: 25 Sep 2022

See all articles by Jean O. Lanjouw

Jean O. Lanjouw

University of California, Berkeley, College of Natural Resources, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics (Deceased); Yale University, Faculty of Arts & Sciences, Department of Economics (Deceased); Brookings Institution (Deceased)

Date Written: September 1993

Abstract

Empirical estimates of the private value of patent protection are found for four technology area - computers, textiles, combustion engines, and pharmaceuticals - using new patent data for West Germany, 1953-1988. Patentees must pay to keep their patents in force. A dynamic stochastic discrete choice model of optimal renewal decisions is developed incorporating both learning about an innovation and the market as well as the possibility of infringements. The evolution of the distribution of returns over the life of a group of patents is calculated for each technology using a minimum distance simulation estimator. Results indicate that learning is completed within 6 years, that obsolescence is rapid, and that the distributions of patent value are very skewed. Research and development (R&D) expenditures are calculated and patent protection as an implicit subsidy to investment in R&D discussed.

Suggested Citation

Lanjouw, Jean Olson, Patent Protection: Of What Value and for How Long? (September 1993). NBER Working Paper No. w4475, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=227319

Jean Olson Lanjouw (Contact Author)

University of California, Berkeley, College of Natural Resources, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics (Deceased)

Yale University, Faculty of Arts & Sciences, Department of Economics (Deceased) ( email )

28 Hillhouse Ave
New Haven, CT 06520-8264
United States
203-432-3568 (Phone)
203-432-6323 (Fax)

Brookings Institution (Deceased)

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