Why is pooling particularly appealing when it comes to standards?
Many of today’s products are a complex collection of technologies and IP rights. Patent pools provide cost-effective access to patents deemed essential to implementing the standardized technologies in those products. By providing IP at market-appropriate royalty rates, licensees are assured of a “level playing field” (all licensees pay the same rate for field of use) and cost effective access through a single license agreement to all of the IP in the pool. Absent a pool, both licensees and licensors may need to negotiate and manage individual licenses which can be cumbersome, time-consuming, and prove far costlier to both parties than the single-agreement model provided by a patent pool.
