Are the Blockchain-Based Patents Sustainable for Increasing Firm Value?

Abstract

Blockchain technology is changing conventional online transaction systems by eliminating payment gateway firms. The blockchain technology is highly attractive and has earned a lot of attention from investors and firms. To protect blockchain technology, firms acquire a patent of blockchain for enhancing the value of their blockchain technology. However, the sustainable value for a patent of blockchain has not been clearly explored. For this reason, our research attempted to explore the relationship between a patent of blockchain and firm value. We used a real options theory and built robust empirical tests based on United State Patents and Trademark Office (USPTO) data. We collected the patents of blockchains from 2014 to 2018 and matched financial data from the Compustat database. In total, we found 153 panel observations. Our results suggest that a firm's patent of blockchain originality and t-1 lagged effects for a firm's patent of blockchain generality are positively associated with firm value in general. In addition, the sustainable value for the patent of blockchain affects firms differently based on their industry. We found that the sustainable value for the patent of blockchain originality was positively and exclusively associated with the software industry, while the sustainable value for the patent of blockchain generality was positively and exclusively associated with the hardware industry.