Fees Versus Royalties and the Private Value of a Patent

S-Tier
Journal: Quarterly Journal of Economics
Year: 1986
Volume: 101
Issue: 3
Pages: 471-491

Authors (2)

Morton I. Kamien (not in RePEc) Yair Tauman (Stony Brook University - SUNY)

Score contribution per author:

4.022 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

We compare how much profit an owner of a patented cost-reducing invention can realize by licensing it to an oligopolistic industry producing a homogeneous product, by means of a fixed fee or a per unit royalty. Our analysis is conducted in terms of a noncooperative game involving n + 1 players: the inventor and the n firms. In this game the inventor acts as a Stackelberg leader, and it has a unique subgame perfect equilibrium in pure strategies. It is shown that licensing by means of a fixed fee is superior to licensing by means of a royalty for both the inventor and consumers. Only a "drastic" innovation is licensed to a single producer.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:oup:qjecon:v:101:y:1986:i:3:p:471-491.
Journal Field
General
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-29