Cross-licensing agreements

In the late 1940s, two US. companies. Shell Chemical Co. and Union Carbide Corp. (then Bakelite Co.), began research on bisphenol A based epoxy resins. At that time, Shell was the only supplier of epichlorohydrin, and Bakelite was a leading supplier of phenolic resins and bisphenol A. In 1955, the four US. epoxy resin manufacturers entered into a cross-licensing agreement. Subsequently, The Dow Chemical Co. and Reichhold Chemicals, Inc. joined the patent pool and began manufacturing epoxy resins. 

In the summer of 1955, the four basic epoxy resin manufacturers entered into a cross-licensing agreement. Subsequently, Dow Chemical Company and Reichold Chemicals entered the patent pool and introduced conmercial lines of epoxy resins. 

Cross-licensing agreements for the many patents issued have been arranged among Devoe (Memphis, TN) and Reynolds (St. Louis, MO), Ciba-Geigy (New Orleans, LA), Shell (Atlanta, GA), American Marietta (Basel). Dow (Cleveland, OH), Reichold (Boston, MA), and Union Carbide. The trade names of Epon and Araldite are used to describe the epoxy resins sold by Shell and Ciba-Geigy, respectively. More than 140 thousand tons of these resins were sold in the United States in 1978. 

GSM was first planned by the PTTs as a totally open standard that could be used without paying any license fees. After Motorola demanded license fees for its patents, which are vital parts of the GSM standard, cross-license agreements between the manufacturing firms were negotiated (Cattaneo 1994, pp. 92-94). 

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