Defensive patent aggregation

Defensive patent aggregation (DPA) is the practice of purchasing patents or patent rights to keep such patents out of the hands of entities that would assert them against operating companies. The opposite is offensive patent aggregation (OPA) which is the purchasing of patents in order to assert them against companies that would use the inventions protected by such patents (operating companies) and to grant licenses to these operating companies in return for licensing fees or royalties. OPA can be practiced by operating companies or non-practicing entities (NPEs)

Operating companies must often defend themselves against claims of patent infringement. To prevent such litigations, operating companies sometimes purchase patents in technologies which they use or develop. Another motivation for operating companies to acquire patents is the ability to counter-assert such patents in case another operating company files a patent litigation. Operating companies have also pooled their efforts and financial resources to purchase patents.

In 2008, a new business model emerged with third-party financing doing defensive patent aggregation whereby a third-party – the aggregator – purchases the patents or patent rights strictly to mitigate the risk and cost of litigation associated with NPEs and provides licenses to members against a fixed annual membership fee.

Defensive patent aggregation has evolved to be more accurately described as the aggregation of defensive strategies from patent assertion. Current strategies include:

• Pro-active cross-licensing between patent holders so that any patents transferred to an NPE will be licensed already (see LOT Network)
• Group buying and licensing to obtain licenses for groups of companies (see AST and RPX)
• Pre-emptive patent challenges of patents held by NPEs (see Unified Patents)