The Far from Perfect Markets for Patents. A Quantitative Study on Patent Quality

Abstract

This thesis sets out to evaluate the ability of marketplaces for intellectual property (IP) to attract high-quality patents. Through a conducted literature review of theories on markets in general and markets for technology, in particular, the importance of high-quality goods for a functioning market is established. IP marketplaces are important intermediaries in the facilitation of an efficient market for intangible assets, in this case, patents. One of their primary function in this complex market structure is to minimize the search cost for participating actors. By establishing a theoretical foundation of patent value indicators, a method based on composite indexing is used, to evaluate the quality of patents listed on four different IP marketplaces. The study finds that the marketplaces under study struggle to attract patents of high quality and their current potential to minimize search cost and counteract the emergence of a market for lemons is limited.