TILEC Work in Progress: Michela Bonani
Title: Standardization and Patent Portfolios: Understanding Firms' Choices in Standard Projects
Abstract
This paper studies the relationship between participating in a standardization project and the firm-standard similarity. Firms declare patents as essential to multiple standards issued by several organizations, and technology standards in the ICT sector share multiple technology classes. Focusing on a set of firms that declare to own essential patents for several standards issued by different organizations, I study how firms decide in which standards to contribute in relation to the fit between the firm's technical knowledge and the standard's technological needs. My findings suggest that the match between the technological need of a standard and the firm's technical knowledge is an important driver of the firm's decision to participate in standard development. In particular, I find empirical evidence that for a 1% point increase in the technological fit between a firm and a standard, the probability that the firm participates in the technological development of the standard increases by 24%.