Title
Intellectual Property, Competition, and Information Technology
Author
Joseph Farrell, and Carl Shapiro
Date
1/01/2005
(Original Publish Date: 3/1/2004)
(Original Publish Date: 3/1/2004)
Abstract
This paper was prepared as a companion to the Mattioli Lectures delivered by Hal R. Varian, "Economics of Information Technology," available at: http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~hal/Papers/mattioli/mattioli.pdf. Professor Varian's overview analyzes a variety of competitive strategies used by high-tech companies. These strategies - such as personalized pricing, lock-in, and the adoption of uniform compatibility standards to fuel bandwagon effects - often rely on intellectual property, typically copyrights or patents. Since Professor Varian does not explore this issue at length, we complement his work by focusing on it.