Why you should care whether the Supreme Court intervenes in standards case

Andrew Updegrove

1/01/2005
(Original Publish Date: 8/25/2003)

Few people spend much time thinking about standards. And yet there are few things in the modern world that are not dependent upon standards, from telecommunications to Homeland Security. Despite their importance, these standards are created not by government regulatory bodies, but by nonprofit standard setting organizations (SSOs) open to anyone. Recently, a surprise decision in a federal court shook this system to its foundations. As a result, a broad array of companies, SSOs and states (including Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire) have petitioned the Supreme Court to intervene to defend the integrity of this vital process.