A new study by a Harvard Business School professor has found that financial services patents are more likely to be of low quality and subject to more litigation than other patent groups.

The study, “Financial Patent Quality: Finance Patents After State Street,” concludes that financial services patents cite fewer nonpatent prior art publications than other patents, and in particular fail to cite academic prior art. The findings were published Wednesday as a Harvard Business School working paper.

“With fewer citations, the likelihood rises that uncited prior art exists and could render a patent invalid,” said Josh Lerner, who led the study and is the Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking at the business school and head of the Entrepreneurial Management unit.