Changes

thicket_stance={Pro},

thicket_stance_extract={Therefore, if the current dense patent landscape becomes more entangled and the patent thicket problem worsens, it may prove to be the major bottleneck to viable commercialization, negatively impacting the entire nanotechnology revolution. For investors, competing in this high-stakes patent game may prove too costly.},

thicket_def_extract={Patent thickets are broadly defined in academic discourse as "a 'dense web of overlapping intellectual property rights that a company must hack its way through in order to actually commercialize new technology.'"... Such patent thickets, a result of multiple blocking patents, naturally discourage and stifle innovation...},

tags={IPR Reform, Stricter Patenting Requirements, Private Mechanisms, Cross-Licensing, Industry Commentary},

}

title={Ties That Bind: Policies to Promote (Good) Patent Pools},

author={Gilbert, R.J.},

thicket_stance={Pro},

thicket_stance_extract={Patent thickets are common to many high-technology industries in which the manufacture, use, or sale of a device or process may require rights to hundreds of patents.7 Overlapping patent rights raise numerous potential economic problems. Transaction costs of licensing can be high because licensees must identify, search out, and negotiate with numerous separate licensors. Litigation risks can be high because an incomplete portfolio of patent licenses can expose a firm to potentially large infringement damages.},

thicket_def_extract={A “patent thicket,” in which many independent patent holders have rights that cover a technology, is one example of the anticommons...A “patent thicket,” in which many independent patent holders have rights that cover a technology, is one example of the anticommons.5 A patent thicket exists when rights to many patents from different patentees are necessary to lawfully make or sell a product (overlapping rights)},

tags={Private Mechanisms, Pools, IPR Reform, Balance with Anti-trust, Firm Strategy, Collboration, FRAND, Compulsory Licensing},

thicket_stance={Pro},

thicket_stance_extract={In general, a less rigorous examination is cheap to administer but induces uncertainty regarding the patent's validity and thus diminishes the power of patents to prevent imitation. This may have been alleged to give rise to unnecessary license fees, forgone research opportunities, and projects abandoned by competitors who unjustly fear infringement litigation.},

thicket_def_extract={The patent owner may do this by creating a thicket of pantents, so other parties are swamped with so much complex technical documentation that they cannot separate the chaff from the wheat. Developing patent thickets is relatively easy to do in this regime since the patent examination process is cursory.},

tags={IPR Reform, Stricter Patenting Requirements, Review of Patent Validity},

thicket_stance={Pro},

thicket_stance_extract={Firms can also address these problems in non-open-source ways, such as patent pools, standard-setting organizations, and self-imposed commitments. In a patent pool, firms blend their patents with those of other firms. These pools allow users to access a number of firms’ patents simultaneously, thereby avoiding the “patent thicket.”},

thicket_def_extract={Second, open source avoids the problem of a “patent thicket” when multiple firms have overlapping intellectual property rights, and at least one party attempts to extract a high fee for its particular contribution.},

tags={Private Mechanisms, Open Source},