Content area
Abstract
Firms use patents for blocking competitors’ innovation activities. Offensive blocking is a practice whereby firms patent alternatives of a focal invention preempting technological substitutes produced by competitors. Defensive blocking entails the creation of patent portfolios that block technologies in order to increase competitors’ willingness to trade patents. This paper examines the private value of both patent blocking strategies with the use of a novel measure of the offensive and defensive “blocking power” of patent portfolios. We show that both strategies increase firms’ market value. In discrete (complex) product industries, however, only offensive (defensive) patent blocking is associated with higher value.
Details
Title
How Valuable are Patent Blocking Strategies?
Author
Czarnitzki Dirk 1 ; Hussinger Katrin 2 ; Leten Bart 3
1 KU Leuven, Department of Management, Strategy and Innovation, Leuven, Belgium (GRID:grid.5596.f) (ISNI:0000 0001 0668 7884); Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim, Germany (GRID:grid.13414.33) (ISNI:0000 0004 0492 4665); KU Leuven, Centre for R&D Monitoring (ECOOM), Leuven, Belgium (GRID:grid.5596.f) (ISNI:0000 0001 0668 7884)
2 KU Leuven, Department of Management, Strategy and Innovation, Leuven, Belgium (GRID:grid.5596.f) (ISNI:0000 0001 0668 7884); University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg, Luxembourg (GRID:grid.16008.3f) (ISNI:0000 0001 2295 9843); Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim, Germany (GRID:grid.13414.33) (ISNI:0000 0004 0492 4665)
3 KU Leuven, Department of Management, Strategy and Innovation, Leuven, Belgium (GRID:grid.5596.f) (ISNI:0000 0001 0668 7884); Hasselt University, Hasselt, Belgium (GRID:grid.12155.32) (ISNI:0000 0001 0604 5662)
1 KU Leuven, Department of Management, Strategy and Innovation, Leuven, Belgium (GRID:grid.5596.f) (ISNI:0000 0001 0668 7884); Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim, Germany (GRID:grid.13414.33) (ISNI:0000 0004 0492 4665); KU Leuven, Centre for R&D Monitoring (ECOOM), Leuven, Belgium (GRID:grid.5596.f) (ISNI:0000 0001 0668 7884)
2 KU Leuven, Department of Management, Strategy and Innovation, Leuven, Belgium (GRID:grid.5596.f) (ISNI:0000 0001 0668 7884); University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg, Luxembourg (GRID:grid.16008.3f) (ISNI:0000 0001 2295 9843); Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim, Germany (GRID:grid.13414.33) (ISNI:0000 0004 0492 4665)
3 KU Leuven, Department of Management, Strategy and Innovation, Leuven, Belgium (GRID:grid.5596.f) (ISNI:0000 0001 0668 7884); Hasselt University, Hasselt, Belgium (GRID:grid.12155.32) (ISNI:0000 0001 0604 5662)
Pages
409-434
Publication year
2020
Publication date
May 2020
ISSN
0889938X
e-ISSN
15737160
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2243876588
Copyright
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019.