Patent thicket

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A patent thicket is "a dense web of overlapping intellectual property rights that a company must hack its way through in order to actually commercialize new technology." [1]

The expression may come from SCM Corp. v. Xerox Corp. patent litigation case in the 1970s, wherein SCM's central charge had been that Xerox constructed a "patent thicket" to prevent competition. [2]

Patent thickets are used to defend against competitors designing around a single patent. This is particularly true in the electronics industry.[3]

A "patent thicket" was also defined as "the utilization by a patent owner of some patents but not others, or the failure to license others for the purpose of obtaining or maintaining an illegal monopoly." [4]

Patent thickets are also sometimes called "patent floods".[5]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Carl Shapiro, Navigating the Patent Thicket: Cross Licenses, Patent Pools, and Standard-Setting, 2001, Innovation Policy and the Economy (Vol. I) (Jaffe, E. et al., eds), pp. 119–150, MIT Press.
  2. ^ Donald Paneth, News Dictionary, 1978, Published 1979, Facts On File, Inc., pa. 9, ISBN 0871961075
  3. ^ Rubinfeld, Maness, “The Strategic Use of Patents: Implications for Antitrust”, Draft September 18, 2004.
  4. ^ Kenneth Robert Redden, Enid Veron, Modern Legal Glossary, 1980, Michie Co., p. 398, ISBN 0872152375
  5. ^ "...multiplicity of patents, referred to as “patent thickets” and “patent floods” ..." in Mattias Ganslandt, Intellectual Property Rights and Competition Policy, IFN Working Paper No. 726, 2008, page 12.

[edit] See also

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