Overlap kills innovation

On the flipside, patent pools have certain disadvantages associated with them as well. Patent pools may work ineffectively if there are regulation issues among the members of the pool. For instance, if members of the patent pool collectively disagree when it comes to governance issues or if prominent patent owners do not join the pool, the patent pool may be greatly unavailing. Patent pools also pose various issues related to antitrust law. Issues related to antitrust law arises when competitors are patent holders of overlapping patent rights. Consequently, neither of the competitors will end up developing the technology related to the patents they own without infringing each other’s patents. Primarily, there are two types of patent pools. An open patent pool may be defined as a patent pool that is largely controlled by management companies. These companies may control the patent pool by adding patent owners who meet certain criteria from time to time. The management company also coordinates among the patent owners and looks into licensing operations that occur within the patent pool. On the other hand, a closed patent pool may be defined as a patent pool wherein a patent administrator is selected. The patent administrator here regulates the pool, procures licensees, and ensures that the patent pool is conducted in a lawful manner.