問10
頻出度★★☆
特許戦略の一つであるクロスライセンスの説明として, 最も適切なものはどれか。
平成26年度 秋期 ITパスポート試験 問10
This question's explanation and your answers so far.
解説
問 10
Incorrectア
Absorbing and merging with a company that has technology the firm lacks in order to obtain its patents describes acquiring technology through M&A (mergers and acquisitions). There the patent rights themselves are transferred to the firm by the merger, which is a different mechanism from cross-licensing, where the holders each keep their own rights and grant each other permission to use them.
Incorrectイ
Conducting joint research with an organization outside the firm in order to supplement technology the firm lacks and file patent applications describes joint research (industry-academia collaboration or co-development). This is an activity that creates new patents from now on, so it differs from cross-licensing, which lets the parties use patents that have already been granted, both in stage and in purpose.
Incorrectウ
Opening the firm’s own patents to other companies and receiving royalties (license fees) in return describes an ordinary license agreement. Its characteristics are that the permission runs one way, from the firm to the other company, and that money is the consideration; it lacks the “mutuality” of cross-licensing, in which both sides grant permission to each other.
- エ
正解 Cross-licensing is a contract in which multiple patent holders each grant the other party permission to work (use) the patents they own. By making each side able to use the other side’s patents, both can move ahead with development and commercialization while avoiding the risk of infringing each other’s patents. In fields where large numbers of patents are intertwined (semiconductors, telecommunications, electrical equipment, and so on), it is widely used as a means of avoiding patent disputes and speeding up development. In principle the royalties owed on each side can be offset against each other, so the payment burden is also kept down. Choice エ, “Patent right holders mutually granting each other permission to use the rights that each of them owns,” is exactly this content, so it is the correct answer.
ここがポイント
- Cross-licensing = a contract in which patent holders grant each other permission to work each other’s patents. Being mutual (two-way) is its biggest characteristic, and it is used to avoid patent disputes and to secure freedom in development.
- Distinguishing confusable patent and technology strategies: an ordinary license agreement is one-way and earns royalties; M&A acquires the whole company and thereby transfers the patents; joint research is an activity that produces new patents.
用語