Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-2007
ISSN
1058-6407
Publisher
Blackwell Publishing
Language
en-US
Abstract
U.S. legal changes have made it easier to obtain patents on inventions that use software. Software patents have grown rapidly and now comprise 15 percent of all patents. They are acquired primarily by large manufacturing firms in industries known for strategic patenting; only 5 percent belong to software publishers. The very large increase in software patent propensity over time is not adequately explained by changes in R&D investments, employment of computer programmers, or productivity growth. The residual increase in patent propensity is consistent with a sizeable rise in the cost effectiveness of software patents during the 1990s. We find evidence that software patents substitute for R&D at the firm level; they are associated with lower R&D intensity. This result occurs primarily in industries known for strategic patenting and is difficult to reconcile with the traditional incentive theory of patents.
Recommended Citation
James Bessen & Robert M. Hunt,
An Empirical Look at Software Patents
,
in
16
Journal of Economics & Management Strategy
157
(2007).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/3167
Comments
Updated with published article on 9/19/2023
Draft in additional files and on SSRN
C 2007, The Author(s)