Navigating the Patent Minefield Through Consortia

Technology consortia play an increasingly important role in the way new technology products are being developed and brought to market.

David Lopez-Berzosa, Annabelle Gawer, and Gonzalo Camarillo

Summer 2016

Technology companies increasingly face situations in which developing new products involves navigating around dozens or even hundreds of different patents owned by several companies. As a result, innovation is frequently prone to litigation. In addition to making innovation more costly, the looming threat of lawsuits increases strategic complexity and market uncertainty.

The mobile and Internet sectors offer useful examples of how companies can contain the threat of patent litigation. By joining ...