Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • March 2011
  • Article
  • International Journal of Industrial Organization

To Join or Not to Join: Examining Patent Pool Participation and Rent Sharing Rules

By: Josh Lerner and Anne Layne-Farrar
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

In recognition that participation in modern patent pools is voluntary, we present empirical evidence on participation rates and the factors that drive the decision to join a pool, including the profit sharing rules adopted by the pool's founders. In most participation contexts, the at-risk group is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to identify. For pools centered on technologies that result from a standard-setting process, in contrast, we are able to identify a relatively unambiguous population of patents eligible for inclusion but that have not been included in the pool. We find that vertically integrated firms, with patents and downstream operations, are more likely to join a patent pool and among those firms that do join, those with relatively symmetric patent contributions (in terms of value) to a standard appear more likely to accept numeric patent share rules for dividing royalty earnings.

Keywords

Patents; Alliances; Vertical Integration; Standards

Citation

Lerner, Josh, and Anne Layne-Farrar. "To Join or Not to Join: Examining Patent Pool Participation and Rent Sharing Rules." International Journal of Industrial Organization 29, no. 2 (March 2011): 294–303.
  • Read Now

About The Author

Josh Lerner

Entrepreneurial Management
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • 2020
    • Faculty Research

    Fencing Off Silicon Valley: Cross-Border Venture Capital and Technology Spillovers

    By: Ufuk Akcigit, Sina T. Ates, Josh Lerner, Richard Townsend and Yulia Zhestkova
    • Summer 2020
    • Journal of Economic Perspectives

    Venture Capital's Role in Financing Innovation: What We Know and How Much We Still Need to Learn

    By: Josh Lerner and Ramana Nanda
    • 2021
    • Faculty Research

    Two Case Studies on the Financing of Forest Conservation

    By: Andrew Baxter, Connor Cash, Josh Lerner and Ratnika Prasad
More from the Authors
  • Fencing Off Silicon Valley: Cross-Border Venture Capital and Technology Spillovers By: Ufuk Akcigit, Sina T. Ates, Josh Lerner, Richard Townsend and Yulia Zhestkova
  • Venture Capital's Role in Financing Innovation: What We Know and How Much We Still Need to Learn By: Josh Lerner and Ramana Nanda
  • Two Case Studies on the Financing of Forest Conservation By: Andrew Baxter, Connor Cash, Josh Lerner and Ratnika Prasad
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College