Promoting Access to Intellectual Property: Patent Pools, Copyright Collectives and Clearinghouses

24 Pages Posted: 29 Mar 2007

See all articles by Reiko Aoki

Reiko Aoki

Japan Fair Trade Commssion

Aaron Schiff

Independent

Date Written: April 6, 2007

Abstract

This paper reviews and compares patent pools, intellectual property clearinghouses and copyright collectives as alternative systems for promoting efficient access to licensable intellectual property in a 'market for technology' (Arora et al 2001). These systems aid downstream use of innovations by economizing on search and transaction costs faced by licensees, as well as potentially mitigating the conditions that lead to the 'tragedy of the anti-commons' (excessively high license fees and under-use of innovations). We compare and classify different systems in terms of their features, review some existing systems, and discuss their economic characteristics.

Keywords: intellectual property, licensing, markets for technology, patent pools, clearinghouses

JEL Classification: O32, O34

Suggested Citation

Aoki, Reiko and Schiff, Aaron, Promoting Access to Intellectual Property: Patent Pools, Copyright Collectives and Clearinghouses (April 6, 2007). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=976852 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.976852

Reiko Aoki

Japan Fair Trade Commssion ( email )

1-1-1
Kasumigaseki
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8987
Japan

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