Open models for patents: Giving patents a new lease on life?

This essay investigates the development of peculiar models in patents: “Open patent” licenses, patent pledges, defensive patent strategies and the like. Although using patents in an unconventional way, these models do not dispute the very existence of patents, but rather the way patents are being used. These models are not entirely new—some have been around for over a decade—but seem to find an echo with the growing criticisms of the “broken patent system”. These models might be able to go beyond the pro‐patent/against patent debate, by reconciling exclusive/inclusive mechanisms and eventually reveal the strong plasticity of patents, offering patents a new lease on life.