The Influence of Codification, Relationships and Bargaining Position on Timing of Collaborative Licensing
Author:
Dr. Reddi KOTHA
Assistant Professor of Strategic Management
Lee Kong Chian School of Business
Singapore Management University
Abstract:
In this paper, we ask what explains licensing of an invention prior to a patent application. The literature we review suggests that relationships of the licensor and the bargaining power sought by the licensor may explain the timing of collaboration licensing pre and post filing of a patent application. We test the predictions using data of 718 inventions from 1981 to 2002 at one of best private research university in the world with around U.S. $ 50 million in revenue per year. Our results show that the filing of an application by itself has no effect in improving the chances of licensing. Our results confirm the predictions that the enhanced codification and intellectual property rights that the filing of a patent application provide helps when relationships are absent, and greater bargaining power is sought by the licensor. These results offer an explanation on the strategic timing of the negotiation between collaboration partners and how to commercialize science.
