Recent Patent Case Law Affecting Technical Standards

Marc Block, IBM Corporation

9/25/2008
(Original Publish Date: 6/1/2008)

Business and technical factors, and law cases that directly involve standards, are often considered in drafting and assessing standards policies, in contributing patent technology to a standard, in determining the risks of participating in a standards effort, and in understanding the changing standards landscape. This paper considers a number of recent U.S. Supreme Court and Federal Circuit decisions relating to patents that, though they do not necessarily implicate a technical standard, may also be useful in these endeavors.