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Software Patent Citations: A Consistent Weighted Ranking
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Fershtman, Chaim Gandal, Neil |
| Copyright Year | 2005 |
| Abstract | In recent years, economists have begun asking whether incentive schemes like the patent system provide proper incentives for firms to invest in path-breaking research and development. Such an analysis requires a good measure of the value of innovations and patents. This quantification is not an easy task especially in the digital economy, which is characterized by knowledge industries such as computer software. Yet, such quantification is especially important in the digital economy, where technology changes rapidly, the number of patents has grown exponentially and patenting has become an important strategy of firms. Economists and other researchers have primarily used patent citation data as a proxy for the value of the underlying innovation and knowledge flows. The evidence, however, as to whether citations are a good measure of economic value is mixed. In the paper, we construct a refined measure of patent citations for software patents that weighs patent citations by the importance of the citing patent in such a way that the resulting weights are both endogenous and consistent. We then examine the difference between this consistent weighted ranking system and the traditional measure of patent counts. Our empirical work suggests that the CWR measure may be better in measuring patent value for these data than simply the number of citations. Our empirical work also suggests that there may be strategic reasons for citing patents or omitting citations to certain patents. This may be an important strategy in the digital economy, where often the most important asset of the firm is the patent(s) that it holds. We are especially grateful to Martin Peitz and also thank Josh Lerner and Mark Schankerman for helpful comments. We are also grateful to Michael Campbell-Kelly and Patrick Valduriez for providing us with their data. Financial support from NERA is gratefully acknowledged. Any opinions expressed are those of the authors. 1 Fershtman: Tel Aviv University, fersht@post.tau.ac.il, Gandal: Tel Aviv University and CEPR, gandal@post.tau.ac.il. |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://www.tau.ac.il/~fersht/Papers/2005%20Software%20Patent%20Ciations%20-%20A%20Consistent%20Weighted%20Ranking.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://spirit.tau.ac.il/public/gandal/patent.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
