When the Giants’ Shoulders are Crowded:
نویسندگان
چکیده
Firms in many industries build on the innovations of others, often in the face of short product life cycles. Not surprisingly, legal institutions governing intellectual property (IP) play a pivotal role in shaping this process of cumulative innovation. Recent studies suggest that IP-related “hold up” is especially problematic in the face of widely dispersed, or fragmented, markets for technology, potentially leading firms to underinvest in R&D or to acquire the assets under dispute. This paper presents a simple framework with which to examine how these two dimensions of the contracting problem interact to shape the patent strategies of firms. By examining the patenting behavior of 72 dedicated US semiconductor firms during 1980-94 and identifying some of the organizational “shoulders” on which each firm’s inventions stand, I find that the patenting strategies of firms in this industry are influenced by the combined risk of “hold up” and the degree to which rights to a firm’s technological inputs are widely dispersed among external parties. Accumulating exclusionary rights of their own may enable firms to safeguard their investments in technologically complex physical assets while foregoing some of the costs and delays associated with ex ante contracting over intellectual property.
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If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants. If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.
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تاریخ انتشار 2002