PhD Seminar
PhD Seminar by
Stefanie Pangerl, Technical University of Munich
Currently visiting Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics, CBS
Defensive Publishing - An Empirical Study
Joint work with
Joachim Henkel, Technical University of Munich
Abstract:
Defensive Publishing (DP) denotes the disclosure of inventions with the purpose of preventing the grant of patents. Empirical research on DP is scarce at best. Our study is based on 56 interviews with industrial firms (German and international) and complemented by a large scale-survey in the German electronics industry. Our results show that DP is widely used. It is chosen when the incremental value of an exclusion right over freedom to use is too low to justify the higher cost of patenting, freedom to act is important enough to make DP worthwhile and the loss of secrecy is not too problematic. In addition, uncertainty over the outcome of the examination favours DP. Finally, our findings show that DP often occurs within the patent system, and challenge recent contributions connecting DP to patent races.
The first part of the seminar will present the overall research project and the most important findings from the qualitative survey. The second part of the seminar will introduce the quantitative analysis, which is currently in progress.