Cross-licensing
A cross-licensing agreement is a contract between two or more parties where each party grants rights to their intellectual property to the other parties.
Patent law
Licensing of patents |
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Overviews |
Types |
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Clauses in patent licenses |
Higher category: Patent law |
In
For example, Microsoft and JVC entered into a cross license agreement in January 2008.[3] Each party, therefore, is able to practice the inventions covered by the patents included in the agreement.[4] This benefits competition by allowing each more freedom to design products covered by the other's patents without provoking a patent infringement lawsuit.
Parties that enter into cross-licensing agreements must be careful not to violate
Some companies file patent applications primarily to be able to cross license the resulting patents, as opposed to trying to stop a competitor from bringing a product to market.
One of the limitations of cross licensing is that it is ineffective against
The economics literature has shown that firms with high capital intensities are more likely to strike a cross-licensing deal.[7]
Non patent law
Other non-patent intellectual property such as copyright and trademark can also be cross-licensed. For example, a literary work and an anthology that includes that literary work may be cross-licensed between two publishers. A cross-license for computer software may involve a combination of patent, copyright, and trademark licensing.
See also
- Copyright protection for fictional characters
- Crossover (fiction)
- Defensive termination
- Category:Intercompany crossovers
- Licensing (strategic alliance)
- Licensing Executives Society International
- Patent thicket
References
- Innovation Policy and the Economy, MIT Press2001, p119 et seq.
- ^ Statement of Jeffery Fromm, Hewlett-Packard Company, "Patent Pools and Cross Licensing", 2002, p8
- ^ Ed Oswald, “Microsoft, JVC agree to cross-license patents”, BetaNews January 16, 2008, 2:29 PM
- ^ The agreement does not necessarily include all of the patents that each owns
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-09-01. Retrieved 2006-09-15.
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) | Patent Flooding - ^ Mark Nowotarski, “Introducing Patents into a Major Service Industry”, les Nouvelles, March 2003
- ^ Galasso, A. (2012), Broad Cross-License Negotiations, Journal of Economics & Management Strategy Volume 21, Issue 4, pages 873–911. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1530-9134.2012.00348.x/abstract