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.
SSRN · March 18, 2026 · 6430852
The Takeaway
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.
From the abstract
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