The study on patent acquisition from complementarity and supplementarity: Evidence from Smartphones of Apple and Samsung

This study tries to figure out the strategy of patent acquisition against infringe litigation between rival companies of smartphone under dynamic competition. Patent citation network analysis is used to realize the difference of patent deployment and portfolios after patent acquisition between the leader Apple and the follower Samsung from the view of supplementary and complementary. Four patent indexes provide the movement of technology position and role in the network and the change in technology supplementary/complementary. The result shows that even though the leader and follower used to cooperate in relationship of OEM with technology supplementary, they intend to ”de-opponent” technically because of patent litigation after becoming rivals in the same market. The leader will acquire supplementary patent to enhance his original patent portfolios and the follower will go the other way to strengthen his patent portfolios by acquiring complementary patent.