Justifying Antitrust Intervention in ICT Sector Patent Disputes: How to Address the Hold-Up Problem

The economic justification for any regulatory intervention in patent litigation, especially those for standard essential patents, comes from the view that hold-up of users of patents is endemic to some industries, especially ICT. The paper reviews these reasons why hold-up is more likely in ICT industries and discusses the type of evidence that is available. (Kai-Uwe Kuhn, University of Michigan).