IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-04532253.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Non-practicing entities in Europe: an empirical analysis of patent acquisitions at the European Patent Office

Author

Listed:
  • Valerio Sterzi

    (BSE - Bordeaux Sciences Economiques - UB - Université de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Cecilia Maronero

    (BSE - Bordeaux Sciences Economiques - UB - Université de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Gianluca Orsatti
  • Andrea Vezzulli

Abstract

This paper delves into the proliferation of non-practicing entities (NPEs), a hot topic in academia and public policy, especially in the United States. The common belief is that Europe is less exposed to NPEs due to a robust patent system, higher enforcement costs, and smaller damage awards. Yet, using a new database of NPE patent applications at the European Patent Office (EPO), the study uncovers that NPEs activity in Europe is arising: they own nearly 20,000 EPO patents, primarily in Electrical Engineering. Moreover, we contribute the literature investigating the heterogeneity of the NPE business model and its relationship with the characteristics and use of the patents they target. Our econometric analysis provides threefold original evidence. First, NPEs with higher propensity for litigation (i.e., "Litigation" NPEs) acquire patents with higher infringement risk but similar technological quality than practicing entities. Second, patent aggregators (i.e., "Portfolio" NPEs) and technology companies (i.e., "Technology" NPEs) acquire higher-quality patents compared to those acquired by practicing entities. Third, patent acquisitions by "Litigation" NPEs and "Portfolio" NPEs reduce the subsequent use of protected technologies.

Suggested Citation

  • Valerio Sterzi & Cecilia Maronero & Gianluca Orsatti & Andrea Vezzulli, 2024. "Non-practicing entities in Europe: an empirical analysis of patent acquisitions at the European Patent Office," Post-Print hal-04532253, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04532253
    DOI: 10.1093/icc/dtae010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David S. Abrams & Ufuk Akcigit & Gokhan Oz & Jeremy G. Pearce, 2019. "The Patent Troll: Benign Middleman or Stick-Up Artist?," NBER Working Papers 25713, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Laurie Ciaramella & Catalina Martínez & Yann Ménière, 2017. "Tracking patent transfers in different European countries: methods and a first application to medical technologies," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 112(2), pages 817-850, August.
    3. Sterzi, Valerio & Rameshkoumar, Jean-Paul & Van Der Pol, Johannes, 2021. "Non-practicing entities and transparency of patent ownership in Europe: the case of UK dormant companies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    4. Valerio Sterzi, 2021. "Patent Assertion Entities and Patent Ownership Transparency: Strategic Recording of Patent Transactions at the Uspto [In Defense of Forum Shopping: A Realistic Look at Selecting a Venue]," Journal of Competition Law and Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 17(4), pages 978-1006.
    5. Martin Meyer, 2000. "What is Special about Patent Citations? Differences between Scientific and Patent Citations," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 49(1), pages 93-123, August.
    6. G.S Ascione & L. Ciucci & C. Detotto & V. Sterzi, 2021. "Do universities look like patent trolls? An Empirical Study of University Patent Infringement Litigation in the United States," Working Paper CRENoS 202105, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
    7. Joshua Lerner, 1994. "The Importance of Patent Scope: An Empirical Analysis," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 25(2), pages 319-333, Summer.
    8. King, Gary & Zeng, Langche, 2001. "Logistic Regression in Rare Events Data," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(2), pages 137-163, January.
    9. Lauren Cohen & Umit G. Gurun & Scott Duke Kominers, 2019. "Patent Trolls: Evidence from Targeted Firms," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(12), pages 5461-5486, December.
    10. Jean O. Lanjouw & Mark Schankerman, 1999. "The Quality of Ideas: Measuring Innovation with Multiple Indicators," NBER Working Papers 7345, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Joshua S. Gans & David H. Hsu & Scott Stern, 2008. "The Impact of Uncertain Intellectual Property Rights on the Market for Ideas: Evidence from Patent Grant Delays," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(5), pages 982-997, May.
    12. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    13. H. Kevin Steensma & Mukund Chari & Ralph Heidl, 2016. "A Comparative Analysis of Patent Assertion Entities in Markets for Intellectual Property Rights," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(1), pages 2-17, February.
    14. Gianluca Orsatti & Valerio Sterzi, 2018. "Do Patent Assertion Entities Harm Innovation? Evidence from Patent Transfers in Europe," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2018-08, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    15. Harhoff, Dietmar & Scherer, Frederic M. & Vopel, Katrin, 2003. "Citations, family size, opposition and the value of patent rights," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 1343-1363, September.
    16. G.S. Ascione & Laura Ciucci & C. Detotto & Valerio Sterzi, 2021. "Universities and patent trolls: An empirical study of university patent infringement litigation in the United States," Post-Print hal-03770869, HAL.
    17. Andrei Hagiu & David B. Yoffie, 2013. "The New Patent Intermediaries: Platforms, Defensive Aggregators, and Super-Aggregators," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(1), pages 45-66, Winter.
    18. Lemley, Mark A & Shapiro, Carl, 2007. "Patent Hold-Up and Royalty Stacking," Competition Policy Center, Working Paper Series qt8638s257, Competition Policy Center, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley.
    19. Kiebzak, Stephen & Rafert, Greg & Tucker, Catherine E., 2016. "The effect of patent litigation and patent assertion entities on entrepreneurial activity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 218-231.
    20. Reitzig, Markus, 2003. "What determines patent value?: Insights from the semiconductor industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 13-26, January.
    21. Narin, Francis & Noma, Elliot & Perry, Ross, 1987. "Patents as indicators of corporate technological strength," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 16(2-4), pages 143-155, August.
    22. Leiponen, Aija & Delcamp, Henry, 2019. "The anatomy of a troll? Patent licensing business models in the light of patent reassignment data," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 298-311.
    23. Fischer, Timo & Henkel, Joachim, 2012. "Patent trolls on markets for technology – An empirical analysis of NPEs’ patent acquisitions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(9), pages 1519-1533.
    24. Nikolaus Thumm & Garry Gabison, 2016. "Patent Assertion Entities in Europe: Their impact on innovation and knowledge transfer in ICT markets," JRC Research Reports JRC103321, Joint Research Centre.
    25. Mariagrazia Squicciarini & Hélène Dernis & Chiara Criscuolo, 2013. "Measuring Patent Quality: Indicators of Technological and Economic Value," OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers 2013/3, OECD Publishing.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Peters, Bettina & Marks, Hannes & Trunschke, Markus & Grimpe, Christoph & Sofka, Wolfgang & Czarnitzki, Dirk, 2023. "Schwerpunktstudie Technologiemärkte," Studien zum deutschen Innovationssystem 9-2023, Expertenkommission Forschung und Innovation (EFI) - Commission of Experts for Research and Innovation, Berlin.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sterzi, Valerio & Maronero, Cecilia & Orsatti, Gianluca & Vezzulli, Andrea, 2023. "Non-Practicing Entities and their patent acquisition activity in Europe," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 202322, University of Turin.
    2. Sterzi, Valerio & Rameshkoumar, Jean-Paul & Van Der Pol, Johannes, 2021. "Non-practicing entities and transparency of patent ownership in Europe: the case of UK dormant companies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    3. Grazia Sveva Ascione & Laura Ciucci & Claudio Detotto & Valerio Sterzi, 2022. "Universities involvement in patent litigation: an analysis of the characteristics of US litigated patents," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(12), pages 6855-6879, December.
    4. Valerio STERZI & Jean-Paul RAMESHKOUMAR & Johannes VAN DER POL, 2020. "Non-practicing entities and transparency in patent ownership in Europe," Bordeaux Economics Working Papers 2020-10, Bordeaux School of Economics (BSE).
    5. Fischer, Timo & Henkel, Joachim, 2012. "Patent trolls on markets for technology – An empirical analysis of NPEs’ patent acquisitions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(9), pages 1519-1533.
    6. Mukund Chari & H. Kevin Steensma & Charles Connaughton & Ralph Heidl, 2022. "The influence of patent assertion entities on inventor behavior," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(8), pages 1666-1690, August.
    7. Eun Han & So Sohn, 2015. "Patent valuation based on text mining and survival analysis," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 40(5), pages 821-839, October.
    8. Kwon, Seokbeom & Drev, Matej, 2020. "Defensive Patent Aggregators as Shields against Patent Assertion Entities? Theoretical and Empirical Analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    9. Ascione, Grazia Sveva & Ciucci, Laura & Detotto, Claudio & Sterzi, Valerio, 2024. "University patent litigation in the United States: Do we have a problem?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(2).
    10. Caviggioli, Federico & De Marco, Antonio & Montobbio, Fabio & Ughetto, Elisa, 2020. "The licensing and selling of inventions by US universities," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    11. Fischer, Timo & Leidinger, Jan, 2014. "Testing patent value indicators on directly observed patent value—An empirical analysis of Ocean Tomo patent auctions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 519-529.
    12. Caviggioli, Federico & Ughetto, Elisa, 2016. "Buyers in the patent auction market: Opening the black box of patent acquisitions by non-practicing entities," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 122-132.
    13. Nicolas van Zeebroeck, 2011. "The puzzle of patent value indicators," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 33-62.
    14. Ciaramella, Laurie, 2023. "Taxation and the transfer of patents: Evidence from Europe," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    15. Ayerbe, Cécile & Azzam, Jamal & Boussetta, Selma & Pénin, Julien, 2023. "Revisiting the consequences of loans secured by patents on technological firms' intellectual property and innovation strategies," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(8).
    16. Stefano Comino & Fabio M. Manenti & NIkolaus Thumm, 2017. "The Role of Patents in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). A survey of the Literature," "Marco Fanno" Working Papers 0212, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche "Marco Fanno".
    17. Adrien HERVOUET & Emmanuel LORENZON & Cesare RIGHI & Valerio STERZI, 2023. "Patent Privateering," Bordeaux Economics Working Papers 2023-10, Bordeaux School of Economics (BSE).
    18. Nicolas van Zeebroeck, 2007. "Patents only live twice: a patent survival analysis in Europe," Working Papers CEB 07-028.RS, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    19. Guan-Can Yang & Gang Li & Chun-Ya Li & Yun-Hua Zhao & Jing Zhang & Tong Liu & Dar-Zen Chen & Mu-Hsuan Huang, 2015. "Using the comprehensive patent citation network (CPC) to evaluate patent value," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 105(3), pages 1319-1346, December.
    20. Nicolas van Zeebroeck & Bruno van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie, 2011. "Filing strategies and patent value," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(6), pages 539-561, February.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O34 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital
    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04532253. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.