This study analyses how patent quality impacts the likelihood of acquisition. If a firm owns high quality or valuable patents, other firms may be interested in buying the firm to obtain the ownership of these patents. To proxy the quality of patents, we use both forward and backward citations....

A firm that owns a patent has a legal right to exclude. Applying for the patent, however, discloses discovery of an invention by the firm. Both the ownership of the right and the disclosure of the discovery expose the firm to an acquisition, because other firms may be interested in buying the...