Patent - Secret Mix in Complex Product Firms

Name: Patent - Secret Mix in Complex Product Firms
Cite: 10 AMLECONR 142
Year: 2008
Bluebook cite: Elisabetta Ottoz & Franco Cugno, Patent - Secret Mix in Complex Firms, 10 Am. Law & Econ. Rev. 142 (2008)
Author: Elisabetta Ottoz & Franco Cugno
URL: 10 Am. Law Econ. Rev. 142
Item Type: article
Summary: Author suggests that the more complex an innovation, the larger number of patents it is likely to receive. The author argues that as patent breadth increases, patent protection will be substituted for trade secret protection. However, lowering patent breadth also increases the reliance on secrecy because firms will simply disclose a lower fraction of knowledge, inducing the innovator to rely more on secrets.

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