Business & Finance: Patent Ocean

What does a company do with a patented process in some basic field of its industry? Sometimes it keeps the patent to itself. Often, however, such selfishness results in endless litigation with conflicting patents secured by other companies on similar processes. Corporations sometimes agree with certain other corporations to pool patents and collect royalties instead of paying lawyers. This procedure, however, is open to protest from companies not included in the pool.

Last week a corporation devised a different method of patent-distribution by inviting its entire industry to benefit in its patent process....

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