Patents and product development strategies: a model of antecedents and consequences of patent value

Abstract

Innovation management has been acknowledged as a crucial activity for the growth and survival of firms. An important element of a firm’s innovation management strategy is the acquisition and management of patents. Although the role of patents has been widely discussed in the economics literature, only limited effort has been devoted toward examining the issue in the marketing context. To address this important gap in the literature, this article focuses on the factors governing the perceived value of patents and how such perceptions affect the firm’s product development strategies. A conceptual model is developed and a number of research propositions based on existing research derived. The research has the potential to make a contribution to the academic literature, to offer insights for managers, and to provide guidelines for public policy makers.

The Entrepreneurial Rise in Southeast Asia

“…Another issue that can be considered as motivational or de-motivational is patents, and whether companies deem that salaried employees have any entitlement to patent acknowledgment or whether they remain the property of the company owner(s). Furthermore, that the value an employee may place upon his/her invention in patent terms may differ substantially from its market value (Malewicki and Sivakumar 2004), potentially causing further negativity toward innovation and experimentation. This dimension is of particular relevance in highly technical engineering and pharmaceutical or medical environments, as it may be a groundbreaking idea from an employee that becomes instrumental in the continued success of the business.…”

Network structure of innovation: can brokerage or closure predict patent quality?

“…This intangibility makes patent value difficult to measure, and since researchers tend to use patent quality to reflect patent value (Criscuolo and Verspagen 2008;Pakes 1985), many indicators have been proposed to measure patent quality. These indicators can be classified according to whether they are related to citation indicators (Jaffe and Trajtenberg 2002), patent scope (Harhoff et al 2003;Lerner 1994;Miotti and Sachwald 2003), or maintenance term/renewal decisions (Malewicki and Sivakumar 2004).…”

“…The maintenance fee can be a heavy burden for companies, so the maintenance term of a patent is regarded as a subjective or active indicator of patent quality, which is judged by assignees (Bessen 2008;Lee 2008). Companies can decide to pay maintenance fees three times over the lifespan of a US patent (Malewicki and Sivakumar 2004).…”

Network Structure of Innovation: Can Brokerage or Closure Predict Patent Quality?

“…Being intangible, many indicators can be used to measure patent quality. They can be classified according to whether they are related to indicators [9], patent scope [8,18,19] or maintenance year [20].…”

“…Assignees can decide to pay the maintenance fees three times over the lifespan of a US patent [20] . As such, maintenance years reflect patent quality according to subjective evaluations by patent assignees.…”