Title
PATENT HOLDUP AND ROYALTY STACKING THEORY AND EVIDENCE:
WHERE DO WE STAND AFTER 15 YEARS OF HISTORY?
Author
Anne Layne-Farrar, Ch
Charles River Associates, United States
Date
9/02/2015
(Original Publish Date: 12/17/2014)
(Original Publish Date: 12/17/2014)
Abstract
The debate over the related concepts of patent holdup and royalty stacking in standard setting contexts is nearing its 15th anniversary, having started in the early years of the new millennium. And there is still no resolution. The debate is even older if we include the holdup and license stacking debate in biotech from the 1990s that laid the ground work for the standards’ branch of the arguments. After this many years of discussion, where do we stand in terms of understanding the theory and supporting that theory with empirical evidence? Certainly the theories have been developed, but the empirical support is still lacking. Despite the 15 years proponents of the theories have had to amass evidence, the empirical studies conducted thus far have not shown that holdup or royalty stacking is a common problem in practice, as I explain in this note.
Link