
- changes in patent ownership
- post issuance investment in the patent (maintenance fees, ex parte reexamination
- patent collateralization
- adjusted forward citations to the patent
The results of Prof. Chien’s research are, in her own words, “dramatic”, litigated patents do significantly differ after grant than unlitigated patents.
1. Litigated patents are more likely to be transferred and nearly four times as likely as unlitigated patents to experience a change in owner size.
2. they are hundredfold more likely to experience ex parte reexamination than the unlitigated patents
3. they are maintained more times, on average, than are unlitigated patents
4. they are more often used as collateral
5. they are cited twice as many times
all of these differences are statistically significant.
Litigation is a costly enterprise. If Prof. Chien’s analysis can help identifying patents that can cause disruption of businesses, hinder R&D or can be subject to licensing enforcement actions the IP risk management tasks will become a lot more effective and predictable and could significantly alter the way IP managers will conduct clearance and conduct risk assessment projects.
Click here for the full text of the research article
For a critical review of Prof. Chien’s results, see Patently-O and Prof. Lee Petherbridge “Response, On Predicting Patent Litigation“
[This post originally appeared at ipeg.]
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