The relationship between patent attributes and patent litigation: Considering the moderating effects of managerial characteristics

Patent litigation is not only a battlefield of intellectual property rights, but also a context in which patent value becomes more transparent to the parties concerned. Integrating the resource-based theory with the attention-based view, this study argues that a focal patent's attributes and its assignee's cognitive constraints may result in confounding effects on the odds of patent litigation. In a sample of patent infringement lawsuits involving 520 patents granted in the computer chipset industry, the results show that a patent's pendency time and scope of claims both have positive effects on the odds of patent litigation. Furthermore, we found that the main relationship is negatively moderated by the assignee's inward-looking and managerial attention dilution, respectively. This study confirms the need for a dual-theoretical view, and highlights the context-bound nature of patent litigation.