Stable profit sharing in a patent licensing game: General bargaining outcomes (Q999117)

Coalition games dealing with licensing policy and its limits are treated. Coalition structures formed by an external licensor of a patented technology and oligopolistic firms are considered, and main attention is focused on the necessary and sufficient conditions for non-emptiness of the core of the considered game. It is shown that the core for a coalition structure is always empty, unless the grand coalition is bargained. Further results regard the relation between the number of licences maximizing the total surplus and the number of existing non-licences, and its consequences for the form of the bargaining sets.