We investigate the effects of patent disclosure on corporate venture capital (CVC) investments in technology startups. Toward this end, we focus on the passage of the American Inventor's Protection Act (AIPA), which mandated public disclosure of patent applications. Theoretically, technology disclosure enables CVCs to better evaluate startups and thus, could increase the likelihood of investment relations. Conversely, such disclosure may already satisfy the technology‐acquisition objectives of CVCs, reducing CVCs willingness to form an investment relation after disclosure. Our empirical analysis finds that patent disclosure through AIPA increased the likelihood of receiving CVC investments for startups—specifically in industries where patents have higher information significance. We provide evidence that the observed pattern is mainly driven by a reduction of information constraints regarding startups with patent applications.

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专利披露和风险融资：《美国发明人保护法》对公司风险资本投资的影响

我们研究专利披露对技术初创公司的企业风险资本（CVC）投资的影响。为此，我们着眼于美国发明人保护法（AIPA）的通过，该法规定了专利申请的公开披露。从理论上讲，技术披露使CVC能够更好地评估初创企业，因此可能会增加投资关系的可能性。相反，这种披露可能已经满足了CVC的技术收购目标，从而降低了CVC在披露后形成投资关系的意愿。我们的经验分析发现，通过AIPA进行的专利披露增加了初创公司获得CVC投资的可能性，特别是在专利具有较高信息重要性的行业中。