Clearing a Path through the Patent Thicket

AbstractTo the extent that the USPTO issues a proliferation of broad and potentially overlapping nanotechnology patents, the development of a nanotechnology patent thicket could impede the licensing process required for further innovation. If the contractor refuses the federal agency’s request, the agency can grant a license to the applicant itself if “the contractor or assignee has not taken, or is not expected to take within a reasonable time, effective steps to achieve practical application of the subject invention in such field of use” or if “action is necessary to meet requirements for public use specified by Federal regulations and such requirements are not reasonably satisfied by the contractor, assignee, or licensees.” Theoretically, the march-in right demonstrates the power of the government to prevent the nonuse of patents in the context of patent hoarding or blocking patents used to stifle competition. These university-based nanotechnology research centers are in a prime position to secure bids for significant shares of the new funding from the Nanotechnology Act; ultimately, they should have an augmented government license defense in order to carry out incremental and innovative research effectively without becoming unduly encumbered by a nanotechnology patent thicket.

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Dealing with patent fragmentation in ICT and genetics: Patent pools and clearing houses

First Monday ◽

10.5210/fm.v12i6.1912 ◽

2007 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Geertrui Van Overwalle ◽

Esther Van Zimmeren ◽

Birgit Verbeure ◽

Gert Matthijs

Keyword(s):

Patent Pools ◽

Remarkable Increase ◽

Patent Thicket ◽

Patent Thickets

Recent years have shown a remarkable increase of patents in the field of ICT and genetics. The omnipresence of patents in those areas has raised serious concerns about access to and use of ICT and genome related inventions, as the expansion of patents in those fields might result in a patent thicket. Collaborative licensing models, such as patent pools and clearing houses, have attracted great attention, as they might serve as a mechanism to deal with patent thickets in ICT and genetics and facilitate access to ICT and genomic patents. It remains to be seen to what extent the lessons from the collaborative rights experiments in ICT and genetics, can be applied in a cyberinfrastructure setting.

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