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Investing in legal advice - What determines the costs of enforcing intellectual property rights?

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  • Juranek, Steffen

    (Dept. of Business and Management Science, Norwegian School of Economics)

Abstract

This paper studies the determinants of investment in legal advice by plaintiffs in patent litigation. A hand-collected sample of US patent litigation cases is used to identify the empirical factors that determine the number of legal counsels employed by the plaintiffs. It turns out that more valuable patents lead to a higher investment in legal advice. Large firms, and plaintiffs with large patent portfolios employ more counsels, whereas individual litigants employ fewer. Software patents are related to a lower investment by the plaintiffs. These findings help not only to understand the cost drivers of litigation but have also important implications for the discussions on software patents, and the role of the litigant status for litigation success.

Suggested Citation

  • Juranek, Steffen, 2015. "Investing in legal advice - What determines the costs of enforcing intellectual property rights?," Discussion Papers 2015/20, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Business and Management Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:nhhfms:2015_020
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/11250/300079
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Litigation; patents; litigation costs; software patents; litigant status;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K00 - Law and Economics - - General - - - General (including Data Sources and Description)
    • K41 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Litigation Process
    • O34 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital

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