Technology Licensing/Patent Pools

Folks:
These days I have been reading all these management concepts. One of the ones I am reading these days is called as "Technology Licensing". This seems to me a very interesting concept as I always believed that most of he companies have been trying t hide their designs and IP from their competitors, in specific and the public, in general. As I am reading the material these days and i am finding that the sharing of the technology has been going last 150 years. Some of it as companies could not produce anything in particular and another reason was that it was imposed by the govt to make a pool to help them further for their national interests especially in US during World Wars like creation of Radio associations. You should read through the following links to get an overview about what it is all about and how the patent pools are reshaping the R& D in whatever sector you talk about .

Patent pool
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_pool
"In patent law, a patent pool is a consortium of at least two
companies agreeing to cross-license patents relating to a particular
technology. The creation of a patent pool can save patentees and
licensees time and money, and, in case of blocking patents, it may
also be the only reasonable method for making the invention available
to the public. [1] Competition law issues are usually important when a
large consortium is formed. Patent pooling has recently become a hotly
debated field."

Making innovation pay: people who turn IP into shareholder value By
Bruce Berman

http://books.google.com/books?id=5NihtzxLpDAC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Patent Pool Examples

# Sewing Machine

In 1856, the Sewing Machine Combination formed one of the first
patent pools consisting of sewing machine patents. See Robert P.
Merges, Institutions For Intellectual Property Transactions: The Case
for Patent Pools (August 1999).

# Movie Projector

In 1908, Armat, Biograph, Edison and Vitagraph entered an
agreement under which the four firms assigned "all the patents in the
early-day motion picture industry." The agreement also specified the
royalties that were to be paid into the pool by licensees of the pool
patents such as movie exhibitors. More on the history at: The Edison
Movie Monopoly: The Motion Picture Patents Company vs.the Independent
Outlaws by J. A. Aberdeen, The First Studios by Marc Wanamakert,
Archives of Universal Studios: Carl Laemmle and the Early Years of
Universal and The Business of the Movies by Rich Warms.

# Bed

In 1916, the owners of various patents related to folding beds
and other similar devices entered into an agreement providing
exclusive license to the Seng Company to manufacture and sell under
the pool patents. Of the total royalties, 33 percent was alloted to
the Pullman Couch Company. The license contract was signed by the
Davoplane Bed Company (7 patents), the Pullman Couch Company (13
patents) and two inventors. The Seng Company paid a fixed percentage
to the pool. Pool members split the royalty according to a formula in
the pooling agreement.

# Aircraft

In 1917, as a result of a recommendation of a committee formed
by the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (The Honorable Franklin D.
Roosevelt), an aircraft patent pool was privately formed encompassing
almost all aircraft manufacturers in the United States. The creation
of the Manufacturer’s Aircraft Association was crucial to the U.S.
government because the two major patent holders, the Wright Company
and the Curtiss Company, had effectively blocked the building of any
new airplanes, which were desperately needed as the United States was
entering World War I. See Harry T. Dykman, Patent Licensing within The
Manufacturer’s Aircraft Association (MAA), 46 J. PAT. OFF. SOC’Y 646,
648 (1964).

# Telecommunication Industries

* Radio In 1924, an organization first-named the Associated Radio
Manufacturers, and later the Radio Corporation of America, merged the
radio interests of American Marconi, General Electric, American
Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) and Westinghouse, leading to the
establishment of standardization of radio parts, airway’s frequency
locations and television transmission standards. See The Radio
Manufacturers Association (August 5, 1998).
DVD Licensing Site. DVD6C Licensing Agency. There are presently
80 U. S. Patents for DVD-ROM drives, DVD-Video players and DVD
decoders, and 96 U. S. Patents for DVD-ROM discs and DVD-Video discs.
The royalties under the joint license for DVD-Video players and DVD-
ROM drives are 4% of the net selling price of the product or U.S.
$4.00 per product, whichever is higher. Royalties for DVD decoders are
4% of the net selling price of the product or U.S. $1.00 per product,
whichever is higher (more information). .

Patent Pooling catching up in India

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/02/14/stories/2007021402771400.htm

Also, some news from the IT industry is also updated below:

http://news.cnet.com/Nokia,-Trimble-ink-navigation-tech-licensing-deal/2100-1039_3-6121774.html

http://www.ott.caltech.edu/

Qualcomm does bundling of patents to fix royalty agreements.

Qualcomm generates revenue from following ways:
- selling chips for phones to manufacturers (called OEMs and ODMs)
such as LG, Samsung etc.
- charging royalty from OEMs who make 3G phones because all 3G (CDMA
or UMTS) phones use Qualcomm's patent portfolio extensively. so
companies like Apple or Nokia which don't even use Qualcomm's chipsets
pay money to Qualcomm for getting licenses
- licensing technology to infra vendors such as Alcatal-Lucent,
Ericcson, Nokia-Seimens, Huawei etc.

If you want to explore, IT product companies then Microsoft and IBM
are among the ones having large patent portfolios.

As such any product company (be it IT or others) have good number of
patents and their patents are such that no other company has developed
something similar then they get most benefits.

Found some good links

http://www.rethink-wireless.com/2009/11/16/qualcomm-4g-licensing-deals-big.htm