Title
Patents and the Performance of Voluntary Standard Setting Organizations
Author
Marc Rysman, Boston University, Department of Economics, and Tim Simcoe, J.L. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
Date
3/02/2008
(Original Publish Date: 6/1/2007)
(Original Publish Date: 6/1/2007)
Abstract
This paper examines the economic and technological significance of voluntary standard setting organizations (SSOs). These groups are common in industries with strong network effects, where they provide a forum for collective decision-making and an alternative to coordination through market competition or government regulation. We use patent citations as a measure of SSO performance. Specifically, we model the flow of citations to a sample of U.S. patents disclosed during the standard-setting process at four major SSOs. Our main results show that the age distribution of SSO patent citations is shifted towards later years (relative to an average patent), and that citations increase substantially following disclosure. This suggests that SSOs identify promising solutions and play an important role in promoting their adoption and diffusion. These results provide the first empirical look at patents disclosed to SSOs.
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