Research on the influence of Sino - US technology rivalry on patent litigation of Chinese firms in the US

中美技术博弈对中国企业在美专利被诉的影响

Abstract

Nowadays, the uncertainty of the international environment is rising. On the one hand, deglobalization is intensifying, new technological nationalism is prevailing, and the global economic structure is being reshaped. On the other hand, as geopolitical conflicts between countries continue and Sino-US trade frictions intensify, Chinese multinational enterprises are facing unprecedented challenges. Among them, the core event is still that the United States imposed tariffs on Chinese imports in 2018, which subsequently escalated into the Sino-US trade war and technology game, in which the United States targeted Chinese high-tech enterprises and increased sanctions on industries in the "Made in China 2025". All the above phenomena show the concern of the United States about the rapid progress of China's science and technology. For Chinese multinational enterprises, it is not only necessary to strengthen the awareness of independent innovation, but also to protect their own technology from being infringed, which is also a topic worthy of attention in the theoretical and practical circles. This paper theoretically analyzes the intrinsic mechanism of the impact of the Sino-US Technology Rivalry on the number of patent litigation faced by Chinese firms in the United States, starting from the mechanisms of "Decoupling" and "Competition." Political tensions between the United States and China, on the one hand, limit the movement of technology and personnel between the two countries, thereby reducing potential patent disputes; On the other hand, it will increase the possibility that US enterprises will use patent litigation as a competitive weapon to suppress the core technology of Chinese enterprises, and the number of patent lawsuits will increase. Two contradictory "forces" make the relationship between the political tension between China and the United States and the number of Chinese enterprises being sued in the United States become confusing. By constructing a Staggered Difference -in- Differences model and using a sample of 151 Chinese high-tech companies that have faced patent litigations in the United States from 2013 to 2022, the paper examines the effect of the Sino-US Technology Rivalry on the number of patent litigation. The study finds that due to the reduction in technological activities and exchanges between researchers in China and the United States, the number of patent litigation against Chinese high-tech companies in the United States has significantly decreased after the Sino-US Technology Rivalry, and this effect remains robust after multiple tests. Further research reveals that the international diversity of companies weakens the negative effect, while the intensity of R&D strengthens the negative effect. This article tries to contribute to the following three aspects. First, this paper enriches the literature on political tensions and corporate strategic relationships, and finds that the US-China technology game has a negative impact on patent litigation through the progressive different-difference model, providing new evidence of the consequences of the US-China technology game at the micro-enterprise patent strategy level. Secondly, this paper enriched the relevant literature on cross-border patent litigation, innovatively proposed two mechanisms of "decoupling" and "competition", fully analyzed the impact path of external events on patent litigation at the macro level, and tested the regulatory role of international diversity and R&D intensity. Finally, this paper provides practical guidance for Chinese enterprises and government to deal with the technology game between China and the US.