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“Patent pools” are a licensing strategy that allows patent holders to leverage each others’ work to create complex products when competing ownership of intellectual property blocks innovation. The US Department of Justice Antitrust Division evaluates the validity of patent pools to ensure they do not distort markets inappropriately. An unanswered question was whether patent pools were more likely to survive anti-trust scrutiny when there was also an established, open technological standard.

Cory developed a set of algorithms to examine the changes in patent co-citation network density for a selected set of candidate patent pools (both successful and unsuccessful in DOJ evaluations). These algorithms were run against the full USPTO and NBER patent databases to objectively identify high-density patent “thickets”: dense webs of overlapping patent citations. By examining the relationship between citation density and time, he constructed a model describing individual patent applications that preceded the creation of a patent pool.

The developed model was able to distinguish differences in network structure between successful and unsuccessful patent pools in several dimensions (time, number of components, existence of a standard, acceleration of network density, citation density compared to adjacent granted patents). The ability to establish objective criteria for thicket identification was key in determining correlations between patent pool characteristics and DOJ analysis outcomes.

By analyzing the full USPTO and NBER patent databases, Cory and colleagues Dr. Gavin Clarkson and Dr. Lian Jian developed a model that was able to:

  • Reduce patent pools of any technology to a set of key characteristics; and,
  • Predict whether those patent pools would survive anti-trust scrutiny.

Additionally, the research established that patent pools are significantly more likely to survive anti-trust scrutiny in the presence of open standards. This allowed companies to alter their R&D lifecycles to include participation in standards-setting bodies and increase the likelihood that later patent pool applications will pass DOJ scrutiny, ultimately impacting the market viability of their IP assets.

Testimonials

Cory is a top notch professional. In addition to being a strong Human Factors consultant, he was also instrumental in management collaboration and decision making. His expertise, focus, and creativity under pressure made him a tremendous asset to our team.

Paul Cutsforth
District Sales Manager / Cequent Performance Products

David has a superior ability to quickly assess a situation and identify business needs then translate them into an action plan.

Kerry Little

Cory contributed great thought leadership to our project - especially in the area of adult learning and best practices. He was attentive, diligent, and a pleasure to work with. If you're looking for a strategic consultancy with a diverse yet competent portfolio, RAW Consulting should be your clear stop!

Annaliese Wimbleton
Global Innovation Manager / Whirlpool Corporation

I engaged with Research At Work Consulting for review of the University of Michigan Enterprise Analytics Roadmap. We asked the RAW team to look for areas that were either underrepresented or missing. Since we thought we had done a comprehensive roadmap, we were surprised with the results. The RAW team did an excellent job of comparing our roadmap to national standards and identifying areas requiring additional definition. It was a thoughtful and thorough review.

Mary Hill
Director of Data Management Services / University of Michigan Medical School

I hired Cory to lead the design and development of a website documenting the research network. Cory identified a great designer/ developer and managed the project perfectly. The design and content were outstanding, and the website launched on schedule. Simply put, Cory is outstanding and I will hire him again.

Carl DiSalvo
Associate Professor / Georgia Institute of Technology

I had the opportunity to hire Cory to document a multi-year, multi-institution (academic and industry) research network that involved over 70 participants with as many projects. Cory conducted interviews with key members of the research network, reviewed key projects, analyzed this data, and produced a detailed report on the activities of the network, with an emphasis on analyzing the structures of collaboration that did and did not work. The report was simply outstanding. Throughout the project, Cory constantly excelled in both his social skills and his research skills. His deliverables were on time and thorough, and his insights were exceptional.

Carl DiSalvo
Associate Professor / Georgia Institute of Technology

David drove the project to completion and was extremely effective in a difficult corporate environment. I would hire him again without question.

Warren Schlicting
Senior Vice President / Comcast

Cory’s interdisciplinary background gave him the ability to see patterns and solutions across different domains that were not apparent to others on the team. These valuable insights have led to opportunities for improvement in the way Intel manages its relationships with academic institutions. I am looking forward to my next occasion to work with Cory.

Ken Anderson
Principal Researcher / Intel Corporation

Cory was a pleasure to work with on a critical training development project. He brought deep knowledge of adult learning theories to his work and presented us with practical suggestions that improved our training delivery almost immediately. In addition to delivering the project, Cory also helped us to gain better insight into our own processes and work culture.

Sara Ulius-Sabel
Global Innovation Senior Manager / Whirlpool Corporation

David has the uncanny gift of identifying business needs by asking on-the-mark questions at a macro level and translating them to applications in a most granular and accurate fashion.

Gerard Broussard