ABSTRACT: Standards Compliance Certification And Branding In The Information And Communications Technology Sector

Andrew Updegrove, Partner, Gesmer Updegrove LLP

2/15/2008
(Original Publish Date: 7/1/2006)

While a standard can provide value to a vendor through facilitating the design and production process, its greatest benefit arises when multiple stakeholders are made aware that a product or service complies with that standard. In order for such a benefit to be secured, however, the assertion of compliance must be trusted, and that trust must be validated by actual performance in the marketplace. In some circumstances, awareness of compliance is needed only on a business-to-business basis, while in others consumers must be made aware - or by experience find that they can take for granted - the fact that compliance goals have been achieved. However, the creation of tests to demonstrate compliance, and the performance of such tests, can be expensive, and not all standard setting situations generate the desire, investment and infrastructure needed to fund neutral third party testing and certification. This is particularly true in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry, in which interoperability among the products of diverse manufacturers is nonetheless an essential requirement. As a result, a variety of techniques have evolved in the trenches to address this need in a situation-specific manner, from self-assertion of compliance with standards, to industry-wide certification programs that support expensive consumer brand-awareness building campaigns. This article surveys the principal certification and branding needs, realities and practices that can be found in the ICT industry today.