摘要：The purpose of this note is to investigate the relationship between patents and market collusion.Specifically, by using game theory tools, it is shown that patents can act as a leniency mechanism, i.e., they can enable firms to leave a cartel without the risk of retaliation.However, the socially beneficial role of patents is limited because the Bertrand competition itself breaks the collusion via the existence of a prisoner’s dilemma between sufficiently myopic market rivals.In the prisoner’s dilemma, two social tensions, fear and greed, make firms deviate from collusion.Patenting breaks the collusion, but at the social cost of a temporary patent monopoly in the product market.
