Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/208055 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
Discussion Paper No. 155
Publisher: 
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München und Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Collaborative Research Center Transregio 190 - Rationality and Competition, München und Berlin
Abstract: 
We study the causal impact of invalidating marginally valid patents during post-grant opposition at the European Patent Office on affected inventors' subsequent patenting. We exploit exogenous variation in invalidation by leveraging the participation of a patent's original examiner in the opposition division as an instrument. We find a disciplinary effect of invalidation: Affected inventors file 20% fewer patent applications in the decade after the decision. This effect is entirely driven by a reduction in low-quality filings, i.e., filings that examiners associate with prior art that threatens the application's novelty or inventive step. We do not observe shifts into national patenting.
Subjects: 
Inventors
marginal patents
patent invalidation
patent opposition
postgrant review
EPO
innovation
JEL: 
O31
O34
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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