Designing around patents is prevalent but not often appreciated as a means by which patents promote economic development through competition. We provide a novel empirical study of the extent and timing of designing around patent claims. We study the filing rate of incandescent lamp-related patents during 1878–1898 and find that the enforcement of Edison’s incandescent lamp patent in 1891–1894 stimulated a surge of patenting. We studied the specific design features of the lamps described in these lamp patents and compared them with Edison’s claimed invention to create a count of noninfringing designs by filing date. Most of these noninfringing designs circumvented Edison’s patent claims by creating substitute technologies to enable participation in the market. Our forward citation analysis of these patents shows that some had introduced pioneering prior art for new fields. This indicates that invention around patents is not duplicative research and contributes to dynamic economic efficiency. We show that the Edison lamp patent did not suppress advance in electric lighting and the market power of the Edison patent owner weakened during this patent’s enforcement. We propose that investigation of the effects of design around patents is essential for establishing the degree of market power conferred by patents. JEL: D21 - Firm Behavior: Theory, D22 - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis, K11 - Property Law, K21 - Antitrust Law, L12 - Monopoly; Monopolization Strategies, N8 - Micro-Business History, O31 - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives, O32 - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D, O33 - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences, O34 - Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital

中文翻译：

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专有权激发设计：规避爱迪生灯专利如何促进竞争和新技术发展

围绕专利进行设计很普遍，但通常不被视为专利通过竞争促进经济发展的一种手段。我们提供了一项关于围绕专利权利要求进行设计的范围和时间的新实证研究。我们研究了 1878-1898 年间白炽灯相关专利的申请率，发现爱迪生在 1891-1894 年间实施的白炽灯专利刺激了专利申请的激增。我们研究了这些灯专利中描述的灯的具体设计特征，并将它们与爱迪生要求保护的发明进行比较，以创建按申请日期的非侵权设计计数。这些非侵权设计中的大多数通过创造替代技术来参与市场，从而规避了爱迪生的专利主张。我们对这些专利的前向引用分析表明，一些专利为新领域引入了开创性的现有技术。这表明围绕专利的发明不是重复研究，有助于动态经济效率。我们表明，爱迪生灯专利并没有抑制电照明的进步，并且爱迪生专利所有者的市场力量在该专利的实施过程中被削弱了。我们建议调查专利设计的影响对于确定专利赋予的市场力量程度至关重要。JEL：D21 - 企业行为：理论，D22 - 企业行为：实证分析，K11 - 物权法，K21 - 反垄断法，L12 - 垄断；垄断策略，N8 - 微型企业历史，O31 - 创新和发明：流程和激励，O32 - 技术创新和研发管理