Litigation risk and innovation portfolio: analysing firms’ direction of innovation

This study examines the impact of litigation risk on corporate innovation, using the 2006 eBay v. MercExchange Supreme Court decision as a natural experiment. By employing a difference-in-differences approach and leveraging firm-level variation in exposure to patent litigation, this dissertation ana...

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Main Author: Okutue, Glory
Format: Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/79502/
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author Okutue, Glory
author_facet Okutue, Glory
author_sort Okutue, Glory
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description This study examines the impact of litigation risk on corporate innovation, using the 2006 eBay v. MercExchange Supreme Court decision as a natural experiment. By employing a difference-in-differences approach and leveraging firm-level variation in exposure to patent litigation, this dissertation analyses how firms adjust their innovation strategies in response to reduced litigation risk. The ruling, which altered the enforcement of patent rights, serves as the basis for this analysis. The findings of the study reveal that the ruling significantly increased overall patenting activity and the number of patents in existing technological fields. However, firms remained cautious about exploring new fields. The study also highlights variations based on firm size, with larger firms more likely to increase patents filed in familiar domains while smaller firms focused on reinforcing their core technologies without significantly increasing their number of patents. These results provide important insights into the complex relationship between legal environments and innovation strategies, suggesting that changes in patent enforcement may have differential impacts based on firm characteristics.
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spelling nottingham-795022025-02-28T15:21:50Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/79502/ Litigation risk and innovation portfolio: analysing firms’ direction of innovation Okutue, Glory This study examines the impact of litigation risk on corporate innovation, using the 2006 eBay v. MercExchange Supreme Court decision as a natural experiment. By employing a difference-in-differences approach and leveraging firm-level variation in exposure to patent litigation, this dissertation analyses how firms adjust their innovation strategies in response to reduced litigation risk. The ruling, which altered the enforcement of patent rights, serves as the basis for this analysis. The findings of the study reveal that the ruling significantly increased overall patenting activity and the number of patents in existing technological fields. However, firms remained cautious about exploring new fields. The study also highlights variations based on firm size, with larger firms more likely to increase patents filed in familiar domains while smaller firms focused on reinforcing their core technologies without significantly increasing their number of patents. These results provide important insights into the complex relationship between legal environments and innovation strategies, suggesting that changes in patent enforcement may have differential impacts based on firm characteristics. 2024-12-12 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en cc_by https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/79502/1/Glory_Okutue_Mres_dissertation.pdf Okutue, Glory (2024) Litigation risk and innovation portfolio: analysing firms’ direction of innovation. MRes thesis, University of Nottingham. Innovation Patent enforcement Litigation Patents
spellingShingle Innovation
Patent enforcement
Litigation
Patents
Okutue, Glory
Litigation risk and innovation portfolio: analysing firms’ direction of innovation
title Litigation risk and innovation portfolio: analysing firms’ direction of innovation
title_full Litigation risk and innovation portfolio: analysing firms’ direction of innovation
title_fullStr Litigation risk and innovation portfolio: analysing firms’ direction of innovation
title_full_unstemmed Litigation risk and innovation portfolio: analysing firms’ direction of innovation
title_short Litigation risk and innovation portfolio: analysing firms’ direction of innovation
title_sort litigation risk and innovation portfolio: analysing firms’ direction of innovation
topic Innovation
Patent enforcement
Litigation
Patents
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/79502/