Accounting Seminar（2018-25）

Topic: Spillover Effects of Trolls-Initiated Patent Litigation

Speaker: Yu Hou，Queen’s University

Time: Thursday, Dec 20th, 10:00-11:30 a.m

Place: Room 217, Guanghua Building 2

Abstract:

In this study, we employ proprietary patent litigation data during the period between 2000 and 2017 and analyze the potential spillover effects from patent-infringement litigation. We develop a framework to identify technology peers at risk of patent litigation (at-risk peers), if the firm uses technologies similar to that of the litigated patent. First, we find that the propensity of at-risk peers being sued by non-practicing entities (“NPEs”or“patent trolls”) increases in the year subsequent to a defendant firm being sued by an NPE in patent litigation. Second, we find that when a firm is sued by NPEs, its at-risk peers are also experiencing significant negative market reactions and market-value losses around the litigation filing date. Moreover, we show that the projected propensity to be sued based on prior data (i.e., the“hazard”of being next to be sued) is an important determinant of the negative market reactions observed for at-risk peers. In addition, our difference-in-differences tests indicate that state-level anti-troll laws mitigate the spillover effects exerted by NPE patent litigations. Finally, we document significant spillover effects for technology peers associated with NPE litigations that are not subsequently sued for patent infringement and such firms report lower operating performance following NPE litigations. Overall, our findings indicate that costs associated with NPE litigations go well beyond existing and future defendant firms.

Introduction:

Yu Hou is an Assistant Professor and KPMG fellow of Accounting at Smith School of Business. He has diverse research interests and has focused most recently on issues related to financial reporting quality, litigation contingency disclosure, and auditing.Yu has published papers in premier journals such as The Accounting Review, Contemporary Accounting Research, and Review of Accounting Studies. He receives his PhD from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto in 2013 and also holds a PhD degree in Business Administration and a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Tsinghua University (Beijing, China). He received a CGA certificate from the Certified General Accountants Association in 2003. He has taught undergraduate core course Management Accounting at Smith School of Business and Rotman School of Management. Yu was the recipient of Research Excellence Award in 2017.

//smith.queensu.ca/faculty_and_research/faculty_list/hou-yu.php

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