%0 Book %A Lerner, Joshua %E National Bureau of Economic Research %I National Bureau of Economic Research %D 2008 %C Cambridge, Mass. %G English %B Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research) ; %T The litigation of financial innovations %U http://www.nber.org/papers/w14324 %X This paper examines the litigation of patents relating to financial products and services. I show that these grants are being litigated at a rate 27 to 39 times greater than that of patents as a whole. The patents being litigated are disproportionately those issued to individuals and to smaller, private entities, as well as those whose features may proxy for higher quality. Larger entities are disproportionately targeted in litigation. I discuss how the findings are in large part consistent with the theoretical literature on the economics of litigation.