Standard-Setting, Innovation Specialists, and Competition Policy

Richard Schmalensee, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management

9/29/2008
(Original Publish Date: 8/12/2008)

This paper investigates several competition policy questions related to standard-setting organizations (SSOs). Are compatibility standards agreed upon by competitors generally in the public interest? Should competition policy generally favor patent-holders who practice their patents against innovation specialists who do not? Should SSOs be encouraged - or even required - to conduct auctions among patent-holders before standards are set in order to determine post-standard royalty rates? Alternatively, should antitrust policy allow or encourage collective negotiation of royalty rates?