Abstract
This paper investigates the impact of media coverage on a nonpracticing entity (NPE) patent litigation concerning the defendant firms. Using a sample of high-tech and patent-intensive firms from the US market between 2000 and 2020, we find that NPEs tend to target highly visible firms. This result is more pronounced when the firms are large and experience positive sentiment in the market. We ensure the causality of this relationship using the anti-troll law, which is targeted to curb the threat of NPE trolls, as a natural experiment and distance from the nearest news branch as an instrumental variable. We find that after suing the target firms, the return of the plaintiff, or the NPE firm, increases. Our results provide new insight into the effect of media coverage on firms’ litigation environment.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
