Research On The Influence Mechanism Of Patent Infringement Litigation On Enterprise Technological Innovation

China’s "14th Five-Year Plan" puts forward higher requirements for implementing the innovation-driven development strategy.The implementation of technological innovation to promote high-quality development of enterprises is the essential requirement for achieving national economic growth and fostering new development advantages;implementing the strategy of strengthening the country with intellectual property rights and protecting patents strictly is an institutional guarantee that encourages enterprises to continue to innovate.China’s effective patent stock has recently achieved breakthroughs,but patent infringement litigation has also shown explosive growth.The increasing frequency of patent infringement litigation has become a risk that business activities cannot ignore.Fundamentally,as the core element of the intellectual property governance system,the patent infringement litigation system adjusts the expected results of the enterprise’s litigation and affects the subsequent technological innovation activities.Can the plaintiff consolidate its technical advantages through continuous innovation after a patent infringement lawsuit occurs? Can the defendant behave like "know the shame and then courage" after the lawsuit to achieve technological catch-up? It not only determines whether an enterprise can achieve the long-term goal of benign development in the competition,but also relates to the efficiency of industrial innovation and even the improvement of the country’s overall innovation efficiency.Therefore,studying the mechanism of the influence of patent infringement litigation on enterprise technological innovation,helping companies respond to patent infringement litigation reasonably,and optimizing their technological innovation strategies in the environment of frequent patent infringement disputes have important academic significance and application value.This paper constructs a theoretical framework for patent infringement litigation affecting enterprise technological innovation based on the related theories,such as technological innovation and dynamic capabilities.Besides,based on theoretical analysis methods such as game analysis and empirical analysis of dynamic impact effect regression,this paper analyzes the mechanism of the influence of patent infringement litigation on enterprise technological innovation.First,this paper explains the research background and significance of the thesis,analyzes the lack of existing literature,clarifies the research content,and determines the theoretical basis and analysis methods required for the research.Secondly,from the perspective of the technological innovation process,patent infringement litigation is introduced into the Chain-Linked Model.This paper defines the effective judgement as the starting point of influence,combines with Chinese judicial practice,and analyzes and selects the outcome of litigation(success or failure),compensation,and multiple-litigation as the influence factors under the overall theoretical research framework.Thirdly,based on theoretical analysis such as game analysis,judicial remedy cost analysis,etc.,research hypotheses on the influence paths of various litigation factors are put forward,and a hypothetical model under the overall theoretical framework is constructed.Next,the level of technological innovation of enterprises is distinguished by patent type.Dynamic influence effect regression and nonlinear regression models are used to analyze the effect of outcome of litigation,compensation and multiplelitigation empirically.The methodology design considers the enterprise-scale,plaintiff or defendant,and the different levels of technological innovation.And this paper examines the moderating effect of compensation and multiple-litigation’s influence mechanism.Subsequently,the theoretical analysis and empirical results are combined to form the influence mechanism of patent infringement litigation on the plaintiff’s technological innovation and analyze the practical problems embodied in the influence mechanism mentioned above.Finally,this paper summarizes the full text and puts forward policy recommendations for optimizing corporate technological innovation strategies,promoting the development of patent-intensive industries,and enhancing the overall innovation efficiency of society from the perspective of patent infringement litigation.The main research conclusions and policy recommendations of this paper are as follows:(1)From the perspective of the innovation process,the direct impact of patent infringement litigation on enterprise technological innovation runs through the technological innovation process of creative formation,product development and market feedback.This paper finds that patent infringement litigation affects enterprise technological innovation mainly based on the progressive influence path of the outcome of litigation(success or failure),compensation,and multiple litigation.Among them,the impact of the outcome of litigation has complex and comprehensive characteristics.Compensation has a direct impact on economic efficiency.The impact of multiple litigation extends based on the first two paths due to the strategic nature of the subject’s behavior.(2)The influence of the outcome of litigation on enterprise technological innovation shows significant heterogeneity in litigation status and enterprise scale.As for the plaintiff,large and medium-sized(LM)enterprises tend to adopt patent defense strategies based on their existing technological advantages after winning the lawsuit,while small and micro(SM)enterprises can only invest their limited innovation resources in short-term breakthrough innovation after winning a lawsuit.As for the defendant,losing the lawsuit has a significant and continuous inhibitory effect on its technological innovation,and winning the lawsuit can help them establish a technological innovation strategy that gradually develops from gradual to breakthrough.However,it should be noted that regardless of the outcome of the litigation,the defendant’s SM enterprises have significantly reduced the output of technological innovation after the litigation.Therefore,this paper recommends that the government should strengthen policy to support the innovation of SM enterprises,encourage enterprises to carry out cooperative research and development and cross-licensing,and enterprises should avoid patent infringement risks through patent intelligence analysis and R&D activities.(3)The impact of compensation on technological innovation is not conducive to optimizing the enterprise’s patent structure.The more compensation the plaintiff receives,the stronger the incentives for utility model applications and the greater the restraint on invention applications.In terms of the payout ratio,the high payout ratio is significantly positively correlated with the plaintiff’s breakthrough technological innovation.At the same time,it is significantly negatively correlated with its progressive technological innovation,indicating that good intellectual property capabilities can effectively encourage companies to carry out breakthrough innovations.Therefore,this paper recommends canceling the incentive policy for utility model patents and guiding LM enterprises to play vital roles in high-quality technological innovation.Enterprises should increase the participation of intellectual property management talents in R&D activities.In addition,mechanism analysis shows that the industrial attributes of patent-intensive industries have a significant moderating effect on compensation affecting enterprise technological innovation.As for the plaintiff,compared with non-patent-intensive industries,SM enterprises are unwilling or unable to carry out technological innovations.Therefore,it is necessary to build an intellectual property service platform for patent-intensive industries,strengthen the awareness of patent creation and protection of enterprises in the industry,and formulate policies to cultivate innovative SM enterprises in the industry.(4)Multiple-litigation has had a strong negative impact on China’s innovation system,and the multiple-litigators have obvious characteristics of short-term profit-seeking.Using 2 and 8 times as the point to divide the frequency of plaintiff’s litigation,this paper finds that the plaintiff’s technological innovation will be significantly weakened after the multiple litigation cases are closed,and its inhibitory effect will increase with the increase in the frequency litigation.Regarding the defendant,the company being sued by the plaintiff in 2 or more litigations has a significant negative impact on its technological innovation,especially in breakthrough technological innovation.However,when the plaintiff is an enterprise with 8 or more litigations,the defendant will significantly strengthen its breakthrough technological innovation after the litigation.Therefore,this paper recommends establishing multiple-litigator databases to make their subject identities public,establishing a pre-litigation subject identity review system to regulate their judicial rent-seeking behavior,and enterprises should establish a patent infringement litigation response mechanism that covers reasonable investigations before litigation,active response to litigation,and review and summary after litigation.