Ziming Wang (University of Tokyo and Cambridge Judge Business School) will be presenting his work on “Patent Pledge and Firm Innovation: The “Good Faith” of Tesla”
About this session: On June 12, 2014, Tesla declared that it would refrain from initiating patent litigation against any party that, in good faith, seeks to utilize its technology. The stated intention behind this move was to stimulate the market for electric vehicles. After a comprehensive discussion of the rationale behind Tesla’s movement and this strategic action’s implications on others, this study presents the first empirical analysis of the impact of patent pledge for pledgor’s entire patent portfolio as a corporate strategy on both the pledgor’s innovation and follow-on innovations. The result indicates that adopting this strategy increased technology similarity for innovations associated with Tesla’s innovation and Tesla’s patenting activity, suggesting an expansion of ecosystem surrounding Tesla. Nonetheless, no significant impact has been observed on Tesla’s innovation activities and the spillover effects on follow-on innovations, which may be attributed to the good faith condition that distinguishes Tesla's patent pledge from a patent expiration or mandatory royalty-free licensing. This study has implications for managers and policymakers who consider incorporating similar patent pledges or royalty- free licensing into their toolkit and future research on evaluating the impact of patent pledge or its equivalent under various contexts.
When: Monday 3rd of March
12.30-12.45 Light lunch and networking
12.45-14.00 Talk and Q&A.
Where: CRASSH meeting room (Alison Richards Building) on the Sidgwick site.
Lunch: A light lunch will be provided, but bring along your drink of choice!
Zoom: You can also join us virtually on Zoom.
The weekly climaTRACES workshops, organised by Kamiar Mohaddes and Henning Zschietzschmann, are attended by a diverse group of people from economics, geography, politics, engineering, business, earth sciences, natural sciences, and history, generating interdisciplinary discussion. One person leads the session, on either a paper they have written, a work in progress, or just an idea they have and would like feedback on. This is also an opportunity for people to find our more about the team on what climaTRACES have been up to and what future events and research projects are being developed.