Disclosure rules and declared essential patents

Rudi Bekkers, Christian Catalini, Arianna Martinelli, Cesare Righi, Timothy Simcoe (Corresponding author)

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)
227 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Many standard setting organizations (SSOs) require participants to disclose patents that might be infringed by implementing a proposed standard, and commit to license their “essential” patents on terms that are fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND). Data from SSO intellectual property disclosures have been used in academic studies to provide a window into the standard setting process, and in legal proceedings to assess the relative contribution of different parties to a standard. We describe the disclosure process, discuss the link between SSO rules and patent-holder incentives, and analyze disclosure practices using a novel dataset constructed from the disclosure archives of thirteen major SSOs. Our empirical results suggest that subtle differences in SSO policies influence which patents are disclosed, the terms of licensing commitments, and ultimately long-run citation and litigation rates for the underlying patents. Thus, while policy debates sometimes characterize SSOs as a relatively homogeneous set of institutions, our results point in the opposite direction – towards the importance of recognizing heterogeneity in SSO policies and practices.

Original languageEnglish
Article number104618
Number of pages14
JournalResearch Policy
Volume52
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Support for this research was provided by the Hoover IP2 initiative. The authors have received useful comments and suggestions from Jorge Contreras, Florian Schuett and seminar participants at Drexel, Duke, Mannheim, Tilburg, the Toulouse School of Economics, and the University of Wisconsin. Timothy Simcoe has consulted for various companies, including Apple, Microsoft and HTC, on matters related to topic of this study. Rudi Bekkers has consulted for various companies and served as an expert witness on several court cases related to the topic of this study. Cesare Righi acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI), through the Severo Ochoa Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D (Barcelona School of Economics CEX2019-000915-S). All opinions and any errors are attributable to the authors. © 2021 by Rudi Bekkers, Christian Catalini, Arianna Martinelli, Cesare Righi and Tim Simcoe.

Funding

Support for this research was provided by the Hoover IP2 initiative. The authors have received useful comments and suggestions from Jorge Contreras, Florian Schuett and seminar participants at Drexel, Duke, Mannheim, Tilburg, the Toulouse School of Economics, and the University of Wisconsin. Timothy Simcoe has consulted for various companies, including Apple, Microsoft and HTC, on matters related to topic of this study. Rudi Bekkers has consulted for various companies and served as an expert witness on several court cases related to the topic of this study. Cesare Righi acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI), through the Severo Ochoa Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D (Barcelona School of Economics CEX2019-000915-S). All opinions and any errors are attributable to the authors. © 2021 by Rudi Bekkers, Christian Catalini, Arianna Martinelli, Cesare Righi and Tim Simcoe. Support for this research was provided by the Hoover IP2 initiative . The authors have received useful comments and suggestions from Jorge Contreras, Florian Schuett and seminar participants at Drexel, Duke, Mannheim, Tilburg, the Toulouse School of Economics, and the University of Wisconsin. Timothy Simcoe has consulted for various companies, including Apple, Microsoft and HTC, on matters related to topic of this study. Rudi Bekkers has consulted for various companies and served as an expert witness on several court cases related to the topic of this study. Cesare Righi acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI), through the Severo Ochoa Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D (Barcelona School of Economics CEX2019-000915-S ). All opinions and any errors are attributable to the authors. © 2021 by Rudi Bekkers, Christian Catalini, Arianna Martinelli, Cesare Righi and Tim Simcoe.

Keywords

  • Compatibility
  • FRAND
  • Licensing
  • Patent
  • Standard

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