, as well as conference discussants and seminar participants for helpful comments. We also thank Stu Graham, Alan Marco, Andrew Toole, and other members of the USPTO Office of Chief Economist for creating, documenting, and providing datasets that serve as the basis for much of this paper. Excellent research assistance was provided by Jordan Bell-Masterson, Kavya Garikipati, and Divya Vallabhaneni. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.

A key role of standard setting organizations (SSOs) is to aggregate information on relevant intellectual property (IP) claims before deciding on a standard. This article explores the firms' strategies in response to IP disclosure requirements-in particular, the choice between specific and generic disclosures of IP-and the optimal response by SSOs, including the royalty rate setting. We show that firms with a stronger downstream presence are more likely to opt for a generic disclosure, as are those with lower quality patents. We empirically examine patent disclosures made to seven large SSOs, and find results consistent with theoretical predictions. JEL Codes: L24, O34.

No abstract

A key role of standard setting organizations (SSOs) is to aggregate information on relevant intellectual property (IP) claims before deciding on a standard. This article explores the firms' strategies in response to IP disclosure requirements-in particular, the choice between specific and generic disclosures of IP-and the optimal response by SSOs, including the royalty rate setting. We show that firms with a stronger downstream presence are more likely to opt for a generic disclosure, as are those with lower quality patents. We empirically examine patent disclosures made to seven large SSOs, and find results consistent with theoretical predictions. JEL Codes: L24, O34.

No abstract