Standards Capture: A Threat to Standard Setting Organizations?

Benjamin P. Liu, Associate in the Intellectual Property Practice Group of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP

7/25/2008
(Original Publish Date: 4/1/2008)

How would you react if your company participated in a Standard Setting Organization (an “SSO”) with your competitors and developed your products based on the adopted standards, only to find that one of the participants in the SSO, who influenced the SSO to select a standard requiring the use of that member’s intellectual property, has taken legal action to enforce its patents against (and extract excessive royalties from) your company and anyone else in the industry who has conformed their products to the standards adopted by the SSO. This scenario, known as “standards capture,” has occurred all too frequently in recent years.