AbstractView references

This paper analyzes firms' decisions to seek intellectual property rights in global markets, particularly in China. We introduce the notion of a 'quadic patent,' defined as a patent family that consists of patent applications filed at the European Patent Office, the Japanese Patent Office, the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and the national patent office of a fourth country. We examine the determinants of quadic patenting at the industry level for China, and at the country level for a sample of 38 countries. Our results indicate that quadic patenting is driven by the need to access markets, respond to imitative threats, and compete in product markets. © 2013 Elsevier Inc.