Patent management and motives for filing patents

Abstract

In this chapter, I analyze how the organizational structure of a firm's patent management is related to its motives for filing patent applications. For such analysis, it is important to differentiate between a short-term and the long-term relation. It is reasonable to assume that, in the long run, a company's intellectual property strategy and patenting motives, determine how the company organizes its internal patent management structures. However, it is also likely that in the short run patent management influences patent filing motives. The latter relation is in the focus of this study. Specifically, I analyze whether the organization of patent management is associated with the importance attributed to certain patent filing motives independently of the characteristics of the technology. The structure of the study does not allow inferring that there is a certain direction of causality. Given that, I will interpret my findings as multivariate correlations of patent filing motives and patent management variables, rather than as causal effects of patent management on filing motives. Further, I would not expect patent management organization to be the sole driver of all filing motives. Rather, I assume patent management organization to be associated with the importance of particular motives. In order to identify these motives, I chose an exploratory research design.