I examine the private and social efficiency of patent pools in a setting in which owners of intellectual property (IP), are both vertically and horizontally related. The relationship is vertical through the ownership of complementary IP and horizontal in that at least one member owns a competing...

I examine the efficiency of patent pooling in a setting that allows for the interplay between the standards process, in which owners of essential intellectual property (IP) develop a new product, and the subsequent pooling decision, in which IP prices are coordinated. If one of the IP owners is...

Economists at the Federal Trade Commission pursue the agency’s competition and consumer protection missions. In this year’s essay, in antitrust, we discuss two recent mergers that involved Rx drugs: First, we describe key elements of the inquiry into the Express Scripts/Medco transaction in...