Major cross-licensing is sometimes viewed with caution now as I understand it because of regulatory antitrust issues, but this seems like it would not have been

Major cross-licensing is sometimes viewed with caution now as I understand it because of regulatory antitrust issues, but this seems like it would not have been the case around World War I. The same problem occurred during the invention of the sewing machine, and the patent holders actually got together and formed a large patent pool, enabling them all to profit and innovate while still protecting their work.