The connection between patent litigation and patent portfolio: An empirical study of U.S. semiconductor industry

Abstract

The strategy of patent portfolio is employed by patentees to protect and prolong their innovative achievements, which is prevailed among the intellectual property community. Furthermore, patent litigation is the terminal manner against infringers. Behind the inventor's strategy of patent portfolio that involving about legal and managed purposes. Following the trajectory of the previous studies with regard to patent litigation in management and economic fields, the correlation between the patent portfolio and patent infringement litigation is what we are anxious to explore in this paper. By sorting out the material of patent portfolio of the defendants and plaintiffs of patent infringement suits in US semiconductor industry and collecting the involving patent data that form the verdicts and adjudications in federal courts. Our results will significantly manifest that some characteristics of patentees' patent portfolio will influence the competence and will of their patent lawsuits against the competitors.