Antitrust, Patents, and Cumulative Innovation: Evidence from Bell Labs

Konferenzbeitrag

How large is the impact of intellectual property on cumulative innovation in electronics, computers and communications? Following an antitrust lawsuit against Western Electric and AT&T, Bell Labs had to license all patents published by 1956 for free. We find that this removal of patent rights increased subsequent citations to Bell's patents by 7%. Patenting in affected patent subclasses increased by 17%. The effect comes from young and small firms in fields in which Bell did not remain commercially active. Placebo regressions support the identification assumption of parallel trends in citations.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Beiträge zur Jahrestagung des Vereins für Socialpolitik 2016: Demographischer Wandel - Session: Patents ; No. E11-V2

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives ; Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes ; Legal Monopolies and Regulation or Deregulation

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Nagler, Markus ; Watzinger, Martin ; Fackler, Thomas ; Schnitzer, Monika
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft
• (where): Kiel und Hamburg
• (when): 2016

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/145580
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET