Revisiting Patent Pool Strategies through the Lens of Platforms

Patent pools are a commonly employed open innovation strategy in knowledge-intensive industries. While the literature acknowledges the role of patent pools as intermediaries for joint licensing, the complexity of patent pool strategies has yet to be fully explored. In this paper, we bridge patent pool literature and two-sided platform theory and propose to revisit patent pool strategies from a platform perspective. We argue that patent pools exhibit the main characteristics of platforms, thereby representing a distinct form of platforms. Our theoretical analysis, integrating platform theory, particularly network externalities, enables us to examine patent pool strategies, including participation, royalty rate, royalty allocation, and governance. Our findings are consistent with recent studies suggesting that patent pool strategy should be more flexible and freer of constraints imposed by the fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) principle. Additionally, we propose that patent pool participation, royalty rate, royalty allocation, and governance should be considered within a holistic framework, rather than independently. Finally, we illustrate our propositions using a mini case study of eleven patent pools.