Patent pools aggregate patents from multiple owners and license them to third parties. They provide benefits like avoiding prolonged licensing negotiations, clearing blocking positions, and expediting access to technology. However, patent pools must be carefully designed to prevent any single patent holder from acting against the group's interests. The example of a medicines patent pool shows how pools can promote access to essential medical technologies by offering licenses on affordable, non-discriminatory terms.

1. PATENT POOLR PRIYAAltacitGlobal

2. PATENTA patent is a legal document, granted for any novel, non-obvious and utility product or process, by a state to an inventor for a statutorily specified period of time upon the disclosure of his invention in a document known as the patent specification. The patent confers the owner/inventor with an exclusive monopoly rights over his invention, preventing others from exploiting his invention to which the patent has been issued.

3. Patent Barriers to access and availabilityMonopoly prices act as barrier to access.

4. Patents restrict innovation .

5. Patents are often a barrier to development of combination products.

6. The complexity of identifying, tracking and obtaining licenses for patented technologies together with fear of potential claims for infringement, act as barriers to generic competition.

7. Uncertainty over size of market/export potential also inhibits generic scale up and prevents economies of scale .DEFINITION A “patent pool” may be defined as an agreement between two or more patent owners to aggregate (pool) their patents and to license them to one another or to third parties, whether directly by patentee to licensee or through an entity set up specifically to administer the pool (Merges, 2001)

8. Patent pool processA “patent pool” is not a term found in the patent law

9. Patent pool process A patent pool is a simple system where patent-owners voluntarily give their patents to a central organization that then licenses them to other companies and researchers. Companies that make unbranded drugs and researchers that want to use the patents to develop new versions of the drugs can access the patents in the Pool in exchange for paying a fair royalty to the patent owners. The Pool acts as a ‘one-stop-shop’ for managing the negotiations and receiving and paying the royalties.

10. BENEFITS Patent pools provide many benefits for licensees including:Offers practical way to overcome patent barriers, which encourages competition and leads to lower prices

11. Avoiding protracted negotiations on licensing terms and conditions with each patent owner through a single point of contact « one stop shop »

12. Clearing of blocking positions

13. Gaining competitive advantage by getting products to market more quickly

14. Making the technology accessible to all users on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms and conditions Cont………………

15. BENEFITSreduced licensing transaction costs.

16. Management of multiple owners and staking of royalties