The Private Values of ”Thicket” Patenting: An Empirical Study Across Industries and Patent Types

Abstract

Based on a data set of 612 European Patents from five different industries, I show that patent thickets occur in both discrete and cumulative technologies and that the effects of thickets on patent value may be far more complicated than actually understood. Multivariate analysis of the data suggests that in discrete technologies thickets may serve to exclude competitors whereas in cumulative technologies they do not. The findings have unexpected policy implications in that they illustrate how patentees could theoretically extend the effective time of protection for their products by thicket patenting. The findings have wide managerial implications in that they force us to rethink our methods of valuing patent portfolios and stimulate new considerations for corporate patenting strategies.

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