A Cooperative Game Approach to Patent Litigation, Settlement, and Allocation of Legal Costs

Abstract

We analyze litigation and settlement behavior in case of patent infringement using the Nash Bargaining Game framework. We show that litigation can be the Pareto efficient outcome. We also show that when there is settlement, the transfer payment from the defendant to the plaintiff is increasing in its own legal cost and decreasing in that of the plaintiff, reflecting the bargaining power on both sides. We also compare the American and English rules of cost allocation when legal costs are endogenously determined.