Technical Standards and Patent Pools: Antecedents, Formation and Distinctions*

Abstract

<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt" lang="EN-GB">How do enterprises build an appropriate patent pool when technical standards are regarded as prerequisites and bases to establish them? This study addresses the issue by examining the technical standards and relative process implications of

<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">de facto</i> standards and statutory standards. Based on statistics and research on patent pools with 34 technical standards from 1993 to 2012, this paper emphasizes on three formation characteristics of patent pools under technical standards: focus on the information technology industry, union of interests among companies with shared advantages, and formation of patent pools that are actively promoted by standard-setting organizations and third-party administrators. The formation process of the DVD and MPEG patent pools largely support this theory.

</span>