The U.S. has been under pressure to abandon the unique first-to-invent feature of its patent law for awarding patents. The opposition to reform argues that switching to a first-to-file rule, the international norm, will undermine innovation. We evaluate this argument in a dynamic stochastic model of a patent race that captures the key features of the U.S. patent system. The model also explains the puzzle why there is much filing activity in the U.S., when in first-toinvent the inventor never has to file for a patent unless he must sue.
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Paper provided by Department of Economics, Emory University (Atlanta) in its series Emory Economics with number
0904.