Academic patent licenses: Roadblocks or signposts for nonlicensee cumulative innovation?

Kyriakos Drivas; Zhen Lei; Brian D. Wright

doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2017.03.018

Academic patent licenses: Roadblocks or signposts for nonlicensee cumulative innovation?

Kyriakos Drivas, Zhen Lei, Brian D. Wright

John and Willie Leone Department of Energy & Mineral Engineering (EME)

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

Academic inventions are key drivers of technical progress in modern economies, and exclusive licensing has become the dominant means of transfer to the private sector. However, the strong licensee incentives generated by exclusive academic licensing are generally assumed to come at the expense of discouragement or diversion of research by nonlicensees. Using data from university campuses and national research laboratories we find that, after exclusive licensing, forward citations by private sector nonlicensees actually increase. An unanticipated exclusive license appears to be a signpost pointing to commercially relevant innovation pathways that nonlicensees follow with successful patented research. Tests using multiple pre-license information disclosures support this signaling hypothesis.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	282-303
Number of pages	22
Journal	Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
Volume	137
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2017.03.018
State	Published - May 1 2017

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Economics and Econometrics
Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

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10.1016/j.jebo.2017.03.018

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title = "Academic patent licenses: Roadblocks or signposts for nonlicensee cumulative innovation?",

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