The Disciplinary Effect of Post-Grant Review – Causal Evidence from European 
Patent Opposition

Nagler, Markus; Sorg, Stefan

doi:10.1016/j.respol.2019.103915

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The Disciplinary Effect of Post-Grant Review – Causal Evidence from European Patent Opposition

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Sorg, Stefan
MPI for Innovation and Competition, Max Planck Society;

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Citation

Nagler, M., & Sorg, S. (2020). The Disciplinary Effect of Post-Grant Review – Causal Evidence from European Patent Opposition. Research Policy, 49(3), 103915. doi:10.1016/j.respol.2019.103915.

Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0005-A17A-C

Abstract

We study the causal impact of invalidating marginally valid patents during post-grant opposition at the European Patent Office on affected inventors’ subsequent patenting. We exploit exogenous variation in invalidation by leveraging the participation of a patent’s original examiner in the opposition division as an instrument. We find a disciplinary effect of invalidation: Affected inventors file significantly fewer patent applications in the decade after the decision. The effect is entirely driven by a reduction in low-quality filings, i.e., filings that examiners associate with prior art that threatens the application’s novelty or inventive step. We do not observe shifts into national patenting.