Diagnostic Kits/IP in Kits

Patents

The Structure of Patent Clearhouses

The Zimmeren article provides a useful framework for understanding the patent clearinghouses (Esther van Zimmeren et al. 2006)
- Five types.
  - Two types of clearinghouses provide access to information on the patented inventions: information clearing houses and technology exchange clearing houses. Information clearing houses provide basic information related to the technology. They have a low barrier to entry but require constant maintenance. The technology exchange clearing house model adds licensing information to the basic information related to the technology to provide a means for initiating negations. (Esther van Zimmeren et al. 2006)
  - There are three types of clearing houses are analyzed that not only offer access to information but also facilitate the use of the patented inventions: the open access clearing house, the standardized licenses clearing house, and the royalty collection clearing house. The open access clearing house provides free use of patented inventions. The standardized licenses clearing house provides standardized licenses for the use of patented inventions. The royalty collection clearing house provides standardized licenses, royalty collection, monitoring of the patents, and a dispute resolution mechanism. (Esther van Zimmeren et al. 2006)

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Patent Clearhouses

Advantages
- The Zimmeren article states that clearinghouses provide the advantages of simplifying licensing negotiations, increased visibility of the patent rights, streamlining of royalty collection, and possible decreased enforcement costs.
Disadvantages (Esther van Zimmeren et al. 2006)
- The Zimmeren article states the difficulties and problems of clearinghouse include having the potential for anti-competitive effects, loss of patent holder control, high levels of patent holder participation are required for success, set up of the clearinghouse is complex, standardized licenses lack flexibility found in negotiated licenses, and trade secret secrecy data cannot be easily maintained. (Esther van Zimmeren et al. 2006)