How large is the market for the sale of patents? A robust market could be an important way for inventors to realize value from their patents. But while there is strong evidence of a large trade in patents during the 19th century, evidence about the modern trade in patents is more limited. Carlos Serrano uses a new data source to obtain estimates of the market for patents in the US.
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John Allison, Mark Lemley, Kimberly Moore and Derek Trunkey compare a large number of litigated patents to non-litigated patents to obtain clues as to what makes a patent valuable to the patent holder.
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A key issue in evaluating the economic effect of patents is the measurement of patent quality. Evidence suggests that many patents are worth very little, but that a few are very valuable. Jean O. Lanjouw and Mark Schankerman look at one way of measuring patent quality. They examine the characteristics of those patents that firms find valuable enough to renew and to protect in court.
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Dominique Guellec and Bruno van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie look at the same problem from a different angle. They explore the characteristics of patent applications that are associated with the probability that a patent will be granted (by the European Patent Office). These should be better quality inventions.
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