The impact of patent wars on firm strategy

We examine how patent wars affect firm strategy. We hypothesize that, as patent wars intensify, firms shift their business foci to markets with weak intellectual property (IP) protection due to increased litigation risks. This shift is attenuated for firms with stronger technological capabilities, and is more pronounced for firms whose home markets have weak IP systems. Using data from the global smartphone market, we find support for these hypotheses. Interestingly, we also find that the patent war intended to hamper the growth of the Android platform may have merely shifted the sales to weak IP countries. This study sheds light on the emerging patent enforcement strategy literature by highlighting the heterogeneity in the efficacy of national patent systems in explaining firm strategy in platform-based markets.