Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Fall 2012
ISSN
1553-4367
Publisher
George Mason University School of Law
Language
en-US
Abstract
This paper estimates the total cost of patent litigation to alleged infringers. We use a large sample of stock market event studies around the date of lawsuit filings for US public firms from 1984-99. We find that the total costs of litigation are much greater than legal fees and costs are large even for lawsuits that settle. Lawsuits cost alleged infringers about $28.7 million ($92) in the mean and $2.9 million in the median. Moreover, infringement risk rose sharply during the late 1990s to over 14% of R&D spending. Small firms have lower risk relative to R&D.
Recommended Citation
James Bessen & Michael J. Meurer,
The Private Costs of Patent Litigation
,
in
9
Journal of Law, Economics & Policy
59
(2012).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/1392
Draft available on SSRN
Included in
Banking and Finance Law Commons, Business Organizations Law Commons, Intellectual Property Law Commons, Law and Economics Commons, Litigation Commons
Comments
Updated with published version of article on 9/19/2023
Draft available on SSRN