HOME » Publications » Economic Review

Abstract

Vol. 55, No. 4, pp. 345-357 (2004)

“The Consortium Standard and Patent Pools”
Reiko Aoki (The Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University, and Department of Economics, University of Auckland), Sadao Nagaoka (Institute of Innovation Research, Hitotsubashi University)

We examine patent pools in the context of a consortium standard. Although such pools of complementary technologies are approved by antitrust authorities, the actual implementation has proved to be problematic. We identify two possible obstacles: free riding and bargaining failure. We also examine the traditional RAND(reasonable and non-discriminatory) licensing condition. We suggest formation, licensing and rent distribution methods more conducive to asuccessful standard specification patent pool operation.