Intellectual Property and the Economics of Product Differentiation

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2019

Abstract

The literature applying the economics of product differentiation to intellectual property has been called the most important development in the economic analysis of IP in years. Relaxing the assumption that products are homogeneous yields new insights by explaining persistent features of IP markets that the traditional approaches cannot, challenging the extent to which IP allows rightsholders to earn monopoly profits, allowing for sources of welfare outside of price-quantity space, which in turn opens up new dimensions along which intellectual property can compete. It also allows for equilibria with different welfare characteristics, making the tendency towards systematic underproduction more contingent and suggesting a broader range of policy options for promoting optimality. This Chapter reviews the economics of product differentiation, examining both the monopolistic competition and spatial competition lines of this scholarship. It then surveys the literature applying these approaches to patent, copyright, and trademark.

Keywords

Intellectual property law, law & economics, law & technology, patents, copyrights, trademarks, innovation, product differentiation, antitrust, competition policy, social welfare, Edward Chamberlin, monopolistic competition, spatial competition

Publication Title

Research Handbook on the Economics of Intellectual Property Law

Publication Citation

In 1 Research Handbook on the Economics of Intellectual Property Law (Ben Depoorter & Peter Menell eds., Edward Elgar 2019).

Link to Full Text

Link to SSRN

Available at Biddle Library

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