55 Pages Posted: 30 Jan 2026 ESSEC Business School Tsinghua univeristy Bocconi University - Department of Management and Technology; IESE Business School Date Written: November 01, 2025 In the knowledge economy, intellectual-property litigation has become central to corporate strategy, with multinational enterprises depending on global legal actions to protect their technological edge. Yet, due to the rising nationalisms and geopolitical tensions, the courts that adjudicate these disputes are unlikely to represent neutral venues. We argue that, in a multipolar world, foreign firms are not treated uniformly: judicial outcomes pivot on the signals of alignment litigants' home countries send to the forum state. To test this claim, we investigate how a country's decision to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)-a China-led multilateral development bank that epitomizes Beijing's efforts to reshape global financial institutions-shapes the legal treatment of its firms when they initiate patent suits in Chinese courts. Specifically, we estimate a difference-indifferences model on patent lawsuits filed by foreign subsidiaries in China between 2010 and 2020. Our findings reveal strong evidence that plaintiff firms from AIIB member countries experience systematically more favorable rulings in Chinese courts during patent disputes, suggesting that judicial decisionmaking aligns with China's broader geopolitical and economic strategies. Keywords: Geopolitics, Patent Litigation, AIIB Membership Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation 3 Avenue Bernard Hirsch CS 50105 CERGY CERGY, CERGY PONTOISE CEDEX 95021 France Via Roentgen 1 Milan, MI 20136 Italy Entrepreneurship & Economics eJournal Subscribe to this fee journal for more curated articles on this topic International Business Strategy & Structure eJournal Subscribe to this fee journal for more curated articles on this topic Change Management Strategy eJournal Subscribe to this fee journal for more curated articles on this topic International Institutions: Courts eJournal Subscribe to this fee journal for more curated articles on this topic
Conti et al. (Thu,) studied this question.