Large companies aren't actually more innovative; they just wait until a small inventor has a winner and buy it right before the patent hits.
Corporate R&D strength is usually measured by how many high-quality patents a company holds at the time of grant. This study reveals that nearly 40% of that 'strength' comes from buying promising inventions from outsiders during the application process, meaning big firms are often better at shopping than inventing.
Grant Assignee and Inventive Origin: Reassessing the Patent Organizational Advantage
SSRN · 6430852
Patent studies usually use grant-date assignee to infer inventive origin, even though grants occur years after filing. This creates a timing problem because patents can change hands between filing and grant, and selected pre-grant transfers can move valuable patents into organizational portfolios. Using 3.8 million U.S. utility patents filed in 2001–2018, we compare grant-based ownership with ownership measured closer to invention by combining pre-grant publication ownership, USPTO assignment re