BENEFITS AND RISKS OF PATENT POOLING FOR STANDARDS SETTING ORGANIZATIONS

Dorothy Gill Raymond, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Cable Television Laboratories, Inc.

1/01/2005
(Original Publish Date: 4/25/2002)

A patent pool can be a way for a standards body to effectuate its policy of requiring contributors to make essential intellectual property rights (IPR) within a standard available on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. This paper explores the historical and current views of patent pools, proposes a framework for analysis to be used by a standards body in determining whether to proceed with a patent pooling arrangement, and concludes with some practical considerations. A patent pool is an agreement by multiple owners of IPR (which can include copyrights as well as patents) to interchange licenses or to grant licenses to third parties. Patent pools can enable the spread of technology, lower consumer prices, and foster competition but they can also limit innovation, restrict output and raise prices. (Article is on pages 65-118)