The effect of patent disclosure quality on innovation*

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Dyer, Travis A.; Glaeser, Stephen; Lang, Mark H.; Sprecher, Caroline
• 署名单位: Brigham Young University; University of North Carolina; University of North Carolina Chapel Hill; Elon University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTING & ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0165-4101
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jacceco.2023.101647
• 发表日期: 2024
• 关键词: knowledge spillovers; INFORMATION

摘要

The patent system grants inventors temporary monopoly rights in exchange for a public disclosure detailing their innovation. These disclosures are meant to allow others to recreate and build on the patented innovation. We examine how the quality of these disclosures affects follow-on innovation. We use the plausibly exogenous assignment to patent applications of examiners who differ in their enforcement of disclosure requirements as a source of variation in disclosure quality. We find that some examiners are significantly more lenient with respect to patent disclosure quality requirements, and that patents granted by these examiners include significantly lower-quality disclosures and generate significantly less follow-on innovation. Overall, our evidence suggests that highquality patent disclosures create knowledge spillovers that spur follow-on innovation. (c) 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.