ABSTRACT
This chapter extends the research by examining whether those litigated US patents are also covered by patents in the European Union (EU) and Japan. It examines whether the holders of these patents continue to pay maintenance fees to retain their patent rights, or allow their patent rights to essentially lapse. The chapter also identifies the technical areas for litigated patents that are also part of a patent family extending to the EU and Japan. Thus, over 60 percent of the litigated patents have corresponding patents filed in the EU, Japan, or both. Notably, this percentage of patents is significantly higher than noted in the Hemel and Ouellette study: 35.7 percent for the EU and 22.6 percent for Japan. Therefore, for US-litigated patents, there is much less patented invention essentially dedicated to other countries. Moreover, these may be some of the most valuable patents in the larger dataset of university and nonprofit patents.
