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Abuse of dominance and licensing of intellectual property

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  • Rey, Patrick
  • Salant, David

Abstract

We examine the impact of the licensing policies of one or more upstream owners of essential intellectual property (IP hereafter) on the variety offered by a downstream industry, as well as on consumers and social welfare. When an upstream IP monopoly increases the number of licenses, it enhances product variety, adding to consumer value, but it also intensifies downstream competition, and thus dissipates profits. As a result, the upstream IP monopoly may want to provide too many or too few licenses relative to what maximizes consumer surplus or social welfare.

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  • Rey, Patrick & Salant, David, 2012. "Abuse of dominance and licensing of intellectual property," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 518-527.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:indorg:v:30:y:2012:i:6:p:518-527
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijindorg.2012.05.003
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    3. Yen-Ju Lin & Yan-Shu Lin & Pei-Cyuan Shih, 2022. "Welfare reducing vertical licensing in the presence of complementary inputs," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 137(2), pages 121-143, October.
    4. Kevin Boudreau, 2010. "Open Platform Strategies and Innovation: Granting Access vs. Devolving Control," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(10), pages 1849-1872, October.
    5. Shamim S. Mondal & Viswanath Pingali, 2017. "Competition and Intellectual Property Policies in the Indian Pharmaceutical Sector," Vikalpa: The Journal for Decision Makers, , vol. 42(2), pages 61-79, June.
    6. Rey, Patrick & Salant, David, 2012. "Abuse of dominance and licensing of intellectual property," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 518-527.
    7. Atle Haugen & Steffen Juranek, 2023. "Classroom experiments on technology licensing: Royalty stacking, cross-licensing, and patent pools," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(2), pages 113-125, April.
    8. Alexei Alexandrov & Russell Pittman & Olga Ukhaneva, 2018. "Pricing of Complements in the U.S. Freight Railroads: Cournot Versus Coase," EAG Discussions Papers 201801, Department of Justice, Antitrust Division.
    9. T. Randolph Beard & George S. Ford & Gilad Sorek & Lawrence J. Spiwak, 2018. "Piracy, Imitation, and Optimal Copyright Policy," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 84(3), pages 815-830, January.
    10. Alexandrov, Alexei & Pittman, Russell & Ukhaneva, Olga, 2017. "Royalty stacking in the U.S. freight railroads: Cournot vs. Coase," MPRA Paper 78249, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Layne-Farrar, Anne & Llobet, Gerard, 2014. "Moving beyond simple examples: Assessing the incremental value rule within standards," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 57-69.
    12. Zhang, Huaige & Wang, Xuejun & Qing, Ping & Hong, Xianpei, 2016. "Optimal licensing of uncertain patents in a differentiated Stackelberg duopolistic competition market," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 215-229.
    13. Karbowski, Adam & Prokop, Jacek, 2015. "Patent hold-up and royalty stacking: the case of multiple downstream firms," EconStor Conference Papers 127475, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    14. Bakaouka, Elpiniki & Milliou, Chrysovalantou, 2018. "Vertical licensing, input pricing, and entry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 66-96.
    15. Jacob Seifert, 2015. "Welfare effects of compulsory licensing," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 317-350, December.
    16. Emanuele Bacchiega & Elias Carroni & Alessandro Fedele, 2023. "Monopolistic Duopoly," BEMPS - Bozen Economics & Management Paper Series BEMPS101, Faculty of Economics and Management at the Free University of Bozen.
    17. Toker Doganoglu & Firat Inceoglu, 2014. "Licensing of a Drastic Innovation with Product Differentiation," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 82(3), pages 296-321, June.
    18. Sougata Poddar & Swapnendu Banerjee & Monalisa Ghosh, 2021. "Technology transfer in spatial competition when licensees are asymmetric," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 89(1), pages 24-45, January.
    19. Li, Hai & Qing, Qiankai & Wang, Juan & Hong, Xianpei, 2021. "An analysis of technology licensing and parallel importation under different market structures," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 289(1), pages 132-143.
    20. Fan, Cuihong & Jun, Byoung Heon & Wolfstetter, Elmar G., 2013. "Licensing process innovations when losersʼ messages determine royalty rates," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 388-402.
    21. Adam Karbowski, 2021. "Unproductive entrepreneurship and patents," Bank i Kredyt, Narodowy Bank Polski, vol. 52(5), pages 473-494.
    22. Adachi, Takanori & Ebina, Takeshi, 2014. "Double marginalization and cost pass-through: Weyl–Fabinger and Cowan meet Spengler and Bresnahan–Reiss," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 122(2), pages 170-175.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Intellectual property; Licensing policy; Vertical integration; Patent pools;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L4 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies
    • L5 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy
    • O3 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights

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