Little patents and big secrets: Managing intellectual property

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Anton, JJ; Yao, DA
• 署名单位: Duke University; University of North Carolina; University of North Carolina Chapel Hill; University of Pennsylvania; University of California System; University of California Berkeley
• 刊物名称: RAND JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0741-6261
• DOI: 10.2307/1593727
• 发表日期: 2004
• 页码: 1-22
• 关键词: information; INNOVATION; disclosure

摘要

Exploitation of an innovation commonly requires some disclosure of enabling knowledge (e.g., to obtain a patent or induce complementary investment). When property rights offer only limited protection, the value of the disclosure is offset by the increased threat of imitation. Our model incorporates three,features critical to this setting: innovation creates asymmetric information, innovation often has only limited legal protection, and disclosure,facilitates imitation. Imitation depends on inferences the imitator makes about the innovator's advance. We find an equilibrium in which small inventions are not imitated, medium inventions involve a form of implicit licensing, and large inventions are protected primarily through secrecy when property rights are weak.