关键词: 序贯创新, 钳制, 最优专利政策, 社会福利

Abstract: When innovation is sequential, early innovators have the exclusive right to use their technology because of patent policy, so they may hold up the later ones. Under complete information, licensing before R&D may avoid holdup but fail under incomplete information. We provide a model when the development cost or value is private information, with which we analyze the innovators’ decision, give the conditions under which holdup occurs and its probability, and point out the optimal patent policy.

Key words: sequential innovation, holdup, optimal patent policy, social welfare