Accountability in the Patent Market Part II: Should Public Corporations Disclose More to Shareholders?

This Article identifies the general devaluation and/or increased risk of invalidation of these types of patents only as an example of information that could be important to shareholders. It then describes the impact this devaluation and known patent liabilities could have on corporate value, presents the requirements for particular companies to disclose patent information to shareholders and policy reasons for strengthening these requirements, and proposes that public companies could do more—or could be required to do more—to limit their risk and increase information transparency to investors.