Runner-up Patents: Is Monopoly Inevitable?
Abstract
Exclusive patents sacrifice product competition to provide firms incentives to innovate. We characterize an alternative mechanism whereby later inventors are allowed to share the patent if they discover within a certain time period of the first inventor. These runner-up patents increase social welfare under very general conditions. Furthermore, we show that the time window during which later inventors can share the patent should become a new policy tool at the disposal of the designer. This instrument will be used in a socially optimal mix with the breadth and length of the patent and could allow sorting between more or less efficient firms. Copyright © The editors of the "Scandinavian Journal of Economics" 2010 .Download Info
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Bibliographic Info
Article provided by Wiley Blackwell in its journal Scandinavian Journal of Economics.
Volume (Year): 112 (2010)
Issue (Month): 2 (06)
Pages: 417-440
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Web page: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1467-9442
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Web: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/subs.asp?ref=0347-0520
Related research
Keywords:Other versions of this item:
- Henry, Emeric, 2010. "Runner-up patents: is monopoly inevitable?," Open Access publications from Sciences Po info:hdl:2441/c8dmi8nm4pd, Sciences Po.
- Henry, Emeric, 2010. "Runner-up patents: is monopoly inevitable?," Open Access publications from Sciences Po info:hdl:2441/c8dmi8nm4pd, Sciences Po.
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Carl Shapiro, 2008. "Patent Reform: Aligning Reward and Contribution," NBER Chapters, in: Innovation Policy and the Economy, Volume 8, pages 111-156 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Shapiro, Carl, 2007. "Patent Reform: Aligning Reward and Contribution," Competition Policy Center, Working Paper Series qt1qm754rc, Competition Policy Center, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley.
- Henry, Emeric, 2010. "Promising the right prize," CEPR Discussion Papers 7758, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
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