The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics Online

A patent pool is an agreement by multiple patentholders to share intellectual property among themselves or to license a portfolio of patents as a package to outsiders. Patent pools were common in the United States from the 1890s to the 1940s; since the mid-1990s, there has been a resurgence of patent pools tied to technological standards. I discuss the history and antitrust treatment of patent pools in the United States, and review the related academic literature (both theoretical and empirical).