IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v106y2016i5p188-92.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Patent Licensing, Technology Transfer, and Innovation

Author

Listed:
  • Mark A. Lemley
  • Robin Feldman

Abstract

Traditional justifications for patents are based on direct or indirect contribution to product creation. Non-practicing entities (NPEs) might provide such innovation, either directly, through working the patent or transfer of technology to others who do, or indirectly, when others copy. Available evidence suggests, however, that ex post licensing demands from NPEs do not normally involve these activities. Some have argued that patents are valuable without technology transfer because the ability to exclude may drive commercialization that would not otherwise occur. We demonstrate that even if commercialization theories sometimes justify patent protection, they cannot justify most NPE lawsuits or licensing demands.

Suggested Citation

  • Mark A. Lemley & Robin Feldman, 2016. "Patent Licensing, Technology Transfer, and Innovation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(5), pages 188-192, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:106:y:2016:i:5:p:188-92
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.p20161092
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.p20161092
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/aer/app/10605/P2016_1092_app.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/aer/ds/10605/P2016_1092_ds.zip
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bernhard Ganglmair & Christian Helmers & Brian J Love, 2022. "The Effect of Patent Litigation Insurance: Theory and Evidence from NPEs [“Valuable Patents]," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 38(3), pages 741-773.
    2. Lisa Craiut & Constantin Bungau & Tudor Bungau & Cristian Grava & Pavel Otrisal & Andrei-Flavius Radu, 2022. "Technology Transfer, Sustainability, and Development, Worldwide and in Romania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-33, November.
    3. Shaobo Li & Jie Hu & Yuxin Cui & Jianjun Hu, 2018. "DeepPatent: patent classification with convolutional neural networks and word embedding," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 117(2), pages 721-744, November.
    4. Xianhai Huang & Yi Wang & Zhujun Zhu & Xueyin Song, 2022. "Quality of imported intermediates, innovation behaviour and markups: Firm‐level evidence from China," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(9), pages 2796-2819, September.
    5. Zhenjie Yang & Chuyi Shen & Fat Iam Lam, 2024. "Scientific and Technological Innovation and Cooperation in the Greater Bay Area of China: A Case Study of University Patent Applications and Transformation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-15, January.
    6. Vidita Choudhry & Todd A. Ponzio, 2020. "Modernizing federal technology transfer metrics," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 45(2), pages 544-559, April.
    7. Brander, James A. & Spencer, Barbara J., 2021. "Patent assertion entities and the courts: Injunctive or fee-based relief?," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    8. Michael J. Hall, 2022. "New technology transfer metrics for the National Institute of Standards and Technology," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 47(5), pages 1573-1583, October.
    9. G.S Ascione & L. Ciucci & C. Detotto & V. Sterzi, 2021. "Do universities look like patent trolls? An Empirical Study of University Patent Infringement Litigation in the United States," Working Paper CRENoS 202105, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
    10. Udo Bauer & Herbert Endres & Michael Dowling & Roland Helm, 2018. "Organisational Capabilities For Technology Transfer: A Study Of R&D-Intensive Firms In Germany," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 22(04), pages 1-31, May.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • L24 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Contracting Out; Joint Ventures
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • O34 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:106:y:2016:i:5:p:188-92. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.