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Cooperative Marketing Agreements Between Competitors: Evidence from Patent Pools

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  • Josh Lerner
  • Jean Tirole
  • Marcin Strojwas
Abstract
On numerous occasions, rival firms seek to market goods together, particularly in high-technology industries. This paper empirically examines one such institution: the patent pool. The analysis highlights five findings consistent with the theoretical predictions: (a) pools involving substitute patents are unlikely to allow pool members to license patents independently, consistent with our earlier theoretical work; (b) independent licensing is more frequently allowed when the number of members in the pool grows, which may reflect the increasing challenges that reconciling users? differing technological agendas pose in large pools; (c) larger pools are more likely to have centralized control of litigation, which may reflect either the fact that the incentives for individual enforcement in large pools are smaller or that large pools are more likely to include small players with limited enforcement capabilities; (d) third party licensing is more common in larger pools, consistent with suggestions that such pools were established primarily to resolve the bargaining difficulties posed by overlapping patent holdings; and (e) during the most recent era, when an intense awareness of antitrust concerns precluded many competition-harming patent pools, more important patents were selected for pools and patents selected for pools were subsequently more intensively referenced by others.

Suggested Citation

  • Josh Lerner & Jean Tirole & Marcin Strojwas, 2003. "Cooperative Marketing Agreements Between Competitors: Evidence from Patent Pools," NBER Working Papers 9680, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:9680
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Dehez Pierre & Poukens Sophie, 2014. "The Shapley Value as a Guide to FRAND Licensing Agreements," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 10(3), pages 265-284, November.
    2. Bertrand, Olivier & Zuniga, Pluvia, 2006. "R&D and M&A: Are cross-border M&A different? An investigation on OECD countries," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 401-423, March.
    3. Galasso, Alberto, 2007. "Broad cross-license agreements and persuasive patent litigation: theory and evidence from the semiconductor industry," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 6718, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Bertoni, Fabio & Tykvová, Tereza, 2015. "Does governmental venture capital spur invention and innovation? Evidence from young European biotech companies," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(4), pages 925-935.
    5. Josh Lerner & Jean Tirole, 2005. "The Economics of Technology Sharing: Open Source and Beyond," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 19(2), pages 99-120, Spring.
    6. Alberto Galasso, 2007. "Broad Cross-License Agreements andPersuasive Patent Litigation: Theory andEvidence from the Semiconductor Industry," STICERD - Economics of Industry Papers 45, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    7. Rudy Santore & Michael McKee & David Bjornstad, 2010. "Patent Pools as a Solution to Efficient Licensing of Complementary Patents? Some Experimental Evidence," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(1), pages 167-183, February.
    8. Timothy S. Simcoe & Stuart J.H. Graham & Maryann P. Feldman, 2009. "Competing on Standards? Entrepreneurship, Intellectual Property, and Platform Technologies," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(3), pages 775-816, September.
    9. Jay Pil Choi, 2003. "Pools and Cross-Licensing in the Shadow of Patent Litigation," CESifo Working Paper Series 1070, CESifo.
    10. Barbara Fidanza, 2017. "Quali driver nella selezione delle target in operazioni di M&A? Una verifica empirica nel mercato italiano," Working Papers 52-2017, Macerata University, Department of Studies on Economic Development (DiSSE), revised Jan 2018.
    11. Richard Schmalensee, 2009. "Standard‐Setting, Innovation Specialists And Competition Policy," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(3), pages 526-552, September.
    12. Josh Lerner & Jean Tirole, 2004. "Efficient Patent Pools," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(3), pages 691-711, June.
    13. Rainer Frey & Katrin Hussinger, 2011. "European market integration through technology-driven M&As," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(17), pages 2143-2153.
    14. Marc Rysman & Timothy Simcoe, 2008. "Patents and the Performance of Voluntary Standard-Setting Organizations," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(11), pages 1920-1934, November.
    15. Sung-Hwan Kim, 2004. "Vertical Structure and Patent Pools," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 25(3), pages 231-250, July.
    16. Grimpe, Christoph & Hussinger, Katrin, 2008. "Building and Blocking: The Two Faces of Technology Acquisition," ZEW Discussion Papers 08-042, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    17. Langinier, Corinne, 2006. "Pool of Basic Patents and Follow-Up Innovations," Staff General Research Papers Archive 12647, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    18. Bessen James, 2009. "Evaluating the Economic Performance of Property Systems," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 5(3), pages 1037-1061, December.
    19. Hussinger, Katrin & Grimpe, Christoph, 2007. "Firm Acquisitions and Technology Strategy: Corporate versus Private Equity Investors," ZEW Discussion Papers 07-066, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    20. Dutz, Mark A. & Sharma, Siddharth, 2012. "Green growth, technology and innovation," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5932, The World Bank.
    21. TSUKADA Naotoshi & NAGAOKA Sadao, 2011. "Standards as a Knowledge Source for R&D: A first look at their incidence and impacts based on the inventor survey and patent bibliographic data," Discussion papers 11018, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    22. Timothy S. Simcoe & Stuart J.H. Graham & Maryann Feldman, 2007. "Competing on Standards? Entrepreneurship, Intellectual Property and the Platform Paradox," NBER Working Papers 13632, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    23. Hussinger, Katrin & Grimpe, Christoph, 2008. "Market and Technology Access Through Firm Acquisitions: Beyond One Size Fits All," ZEW Discussion Papers 08-037, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    24. Lindblom Ted & Mallios Aineas & Sjögren Stefan, 2024. "A Theoretical Analysis of Collusion Involving Technology Licensing Under Diseconomies of Scale," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 24(1), pages 263-297, January.
    25. David Youngberg & Joshua Hall, 2020. "Inventor Mobility, Human Capital, and the Propensity to Patent," Working Papers 20-10, Department of Economics, West Virginia University.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • L2 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior
    • L4 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies

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