Corporate Venture Capitalists and the Sale of Patents by High-Tech Startups

Abstract

Startups are often creators of important inventions, yet they lack resources of their own and must prioritize their commercialization effort into a few promising technologies. We explore how corporate venture capitalists (CVCs) influence a startup’s likelihood of selling its patents. We find that, compared with startups backed solely by independent venture capitalists (IVCs), those backed by corporate venture capitalists (CVCs) are less likely to sell their patents. We further consider various factors, including complementary assets provided by corporate investors, competitive dynamics between corporate investors and startups, as well as other patent-, investor-, and startup-specific characteristics that further corroborate the theoretical mechanisms on how corporate investors influence a startup’s likelihood of selling its patents. Our results provide novel insights into how the resources and preferences of corporate investors can play important roles in a startup’s intellectual property (IP) management strategy and its participation in the market for technology.

Keywords: corporate venture capital, intellectual property management, patent sale, technology entrepreneurship, venture capital, complementary assets