Title
Patents and the Performance of Voluntary Standard Setting Organizations
Author
Marc Rysman, and Timothy Simcoe
Date
4/23/2014
(Original Publish Date: 10/11/2005)
(Original Publish Date: 10/11/2005)
Abstract
This paper measures the technological significance of voluntary standard setting organizations (SSOs) by examining citations to patents disclosed in the standard setting process. We find that SSO patents are cited far more frequently than a set of control patents, and that SSO patents receive citations for a much longer period of time. Furthermore, we find a significant correlation between citation and the disclosure of a patent to an SSO, which may imply a marginal impact of disclosure. These results provide the first empirical look at patents disclosed to SSOs, and show that these organizations not only select important technologies, but may also play a role in establishing their significance.