Repeated Examiner-Attorney Interaction and Patent Approval

Category: Applied Microeconomics and Organization Seminar
When: 26 Oktober 2022
, 14:15
 - 15:30
Where: RuW 4.201

Repeated Examiner-Attorney Interaction and Patent Approval

(joint work with Elena Mas Tur)

Whether a patent application is approved and how fast can be influenced by factors other than its technical merit. We posit that interactions between examiners and patent attorneys smoothen the application process, increasing grant likelihood and speed. We combine data from the USPTO PatEx dataset with the PATSTAT database, studying over 3 million applications from 2001 to 2014. We show that previous examiner-attorney interactions and the percentage of those that led to approval increase the probability of grant and decrease the length of the process. For an average patent, with a lag of 38.19 months, a one standard deviation increase from the mean of previous examiner-attorney interaction speeds up future grant processes by one month, and a one standard deviation increase of successful interaction speeds it up by a further 3.7 months. We conclude that communication between examiners and attorneys increases mutual understanding and reduces friction between applicants and granting institutions. Our findings have implications for different types of stakeholders of the patent process, including examiners at the patent office,patent attorneys, and companies that apply for patents.

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