抄録
If a licensor refuses licensing of an essential patent to a standard, no one can use the standard. This is a case of "tragedy of anti-commons". In order to enhance accessibility to a standard, collective licensing of essential patents to the standard in a reasonable and non-discriminatory condition, that is patent pool licensing, can be used. A typical example of patent pool licensing is that of MPEG-2 by MPEG-LA in which a package of the essential patents to MPEG-2 standard is licensed. The other example is 3G patent platform licensing in which concluding a cross-licensing agreement on a portion of the patent portfolio is allowed for licensees if necessary. There are two important issues on patent pools. The first one is how to discourage the holders of essential patents to be outsiders and the second one is how to prevent from going out of anti-trust regulation. As for anti-trust issues, Japan Fair Trade Commission announced an anti-trust guideline on standard-related patent pooling in 2005. A scheme to raise less conflict with anti-trust regulation is using patent clearinghouse or licensing database. It is hoped that enhancing accessibility to the essential patents to standards be attained by selecting and using proper schemes of collective patent management.
