noun
patent thicket; patent cluster
Technical term in intellectual property law referring to a dense web of overlapping patents held by different entities, making it difficult to commercialize a new product without licensing many patents.
スマートフォン業界では特許群が問題になっている。
Patent thickets are a problem in the smartphone industry.
新技術の開発には特許群を回避する必要がある。
Developing new technology requires navigating around patent thickets.
パテントプール is a patent pool where multiple patent holders agree to cross-license, often used to solve patent thicket problems.
Compound of 特許 (tokkyo, 'patent') and 群 (gun, 'group, cluster'). The term is a direct translation of the English legal term 'patent thicket'.