The Patentist

When standards meet patents: The economics of SEPs and FRAND (Part II)

Standards solve a coordination problem—and then create a new one. Once an industry converges on a technical interface, compatibility becomes a…

Feb 26 • Gaétan de Rassenfosse

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When standards meet patents: The economics of SEPs and FRAND (Part I)

Standards create enormous economic value by making products work together. But they also create a special kind of bargaining over patents.

Feb 3 • Gaétan de Rassenfosse

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December 2025

Patent rights and cumulative innovation: Part II

When courts, libraries, and secrecy laws shift patent rights, what actually happens to follow-on innovation?

Dec 29, 2025 • Gaétan de Rassenfosse

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Patent rights and cumulative innovation: Part I

Balancing the first breakthrough against the next thousand improvements

Dec 9, 2025 • Gaétan de Rassenfosse

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November 2025

National Treatment: Principle or Practice?

Inside the national-treatment debate: theory, evidence, and the line between bias, burden, and selection.

Nov 4, 2025 • Gaétan de Rassenfosse

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October 2025

Patent citations: Tracing spillovers or chasing shadows?

Measuring how ideas move across firms and regions

Oct 3, 2025 • Gaétan de Rassenfosse

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August 2025

Do more citations mean better patents?

What patent citations really measure

Aug 28, 2025 • Gaétan de Rassenfosse

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June 2025

International Trade and Intellectual Property

Let's talk about something other than tariffs

Jun 24, 2025 • Gaétan de Rassenfosse

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May 2025

The “strength” of patent systems

Stronger does not necessarily mean better

May 13, 2025 • Gaétan de Rassenfosse

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April 2025

What is patent quality?

It's complicated.

Apr 8, 2025 • Gaétan de Rassenfosse

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March 2025

Why do firms patent?

For more reasons than you may think

Mar 17, 2025 • Gaétan de Rassenfosse

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January 2025

What proportion of knowledge is patented?

A tiny fraction.

Jan 31, 2025 • Gaétan de Rassenfosse

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