Framework design for an automated patent licensing negotiation system
Ling Wang, Xiaofei Liu, Fang Li · Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering and Technology · 2013
Effective strategies for dealing with patent licensing have been attracting greater interest amongst enterprises due to acceleration in high-tech development and rapidly expanding international trade. In a modern society, patent licensing is a widely accepted approach, viewed as a form of formal transaction. It allows for a licensee to implement the patented technology for future applications, and in return, pay royalties to a licensor for the potential value of the patents provided. Most patent licensing activities were face-to-face talks, however, due to complexities and uncertainty during the negotiation processes of a patent licensing transaction, asymmetric information between licensors and licensees exists. This can hinder a fare and optimal solution for licensing transactions. This study attempts to analyze the requirements of a multi-agent negotiation system for automatically choosing best-fit strategies for patent licensing matching in Chinese market. The system, which serves as a patent intermediary, relies on experts from industries and professional organizations to establish the licensing negotiation conditions. Based on these realistic conditions provided by experts, an automated negotiation system framework has been explored to conduct preliminary negotiation activities between licensees and licensors. We hope that this system has the potential for handling multi-attribute based negotiations for real situations in the future.