Patents and Standard-Setting Processes

Scott K Peterson, Hewlett-Packard Company

1/01/2005
(Original Publish Date: 4/18/2002)

I am pleased to have this opportunity to share perspectives from my experience on behalf of Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) as a participant in a wide array of standard-setting processes in the information technology sector. My focus is on standards that enable interoperability among both competing and complementary products employing new technologies, presenting some challenges beyond those involved in more traditional safety or related kinds of standards. Your agencies' interest in standards of this kind should be welcomed in many quarters in light of their central contribution to the evolution of open, competitive and innovative markets across the information technology landscape. I propose to discuss the increasing role of patents in this area and some difficult issues presented by this trend. All of us involved in these standards processes should by this stage be sensitive to the combination of both positive and negative effects that can occur when technology subject to patent protection ends up in a final standard: it can enhance the quality of the standard and thereby promote both competition and innovation in affected new markets; but it can also enable the patent holder to obtain and exercise market power and to act opportunistically against its rivals. Before delving into these concerns, however, it is important to delineate the diversity of processes, contexts and circumstances under which IT standards evolve. An appreciation ofthis diversity should then elucidate the need for considerable flexibility and experimentation inapproaches to addressing the issues presented.