Gamco: The way I read today's announcement is that VIA is adding the defensive patent pool to an already existing normal patent pool.
"Via Licensing Forms Defensive Aggregation Patent Bank for LTE Patents
New patent bank provides additional risk reduction for Via LTE pool licensees
October 18, 2017 08:30 AM Eastern Daylight Time
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Via Licensing Corporation today announced the creation of a defensive patent bank, a wholly-owned entity that provides a defensive aggregation solution in connection with the company’s Long Term Evolution (LTE) patent pool offering.
“Creating a defensive patent bank to support the patent pool allows us to offer further value to the wireless industry and reduce barriers to innovation,” said Joe Siino, President of Via Licensing Corporation.
Via’s new patent bank serves as a resource for collecting rights to high-quality and essential LTE patents that might otherwise pose a risk for licensees, and providing licenses to these assets through Via’s LTE Patent Pool at no extra cost to licensees. All licensees in Via’s patent pool receive licenses to the relevant patents.
“With the introduction of its new defensive patent bank, Via continues to be a leader in promoting the LTE ecosystem, fostering technological advances, and making the licensing process easier and more transparent for everyone,” said Ira Blumberg, Vice President, Intellectual Property, Lenovo.
Via’s patent bank provides additional risk mitigation for current and future licensees of the Via pool because their licenses will include a greater number of high-quality LTE patents. In accordance with Via patent pool procedures, all patents offered for licensing by the patent bank through the pool are confirmed as essential to the LTE standard by an independent neutral evaluator.
"What Via is doing here is quite innovative. They are combining the benefits of a traditional patent pool, which are very significant, with a form of risk reduction in the area of patent litigation,” said Professor Robert Merges, a patent pool expert and professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley. “By taking unaffiliated patents 'out of circulation' they make life easier for pool members."
