Why RAND is Appropriate for Internet Open Standards

Cover Pages

6/27/2008
(Original Publish Date: 6/15/2006)

RAND licensing terms may be unavoidable or preferable to the alternative in situations where 'IPR encumbrance' is part of the current technology scene. That is, accepting RAND license terms for technology in a developing standard may be preferable to (1) waiting until some new UN-encumbered technology is available, or (2) an end-run to 'work around' an existing encumbered technology by avoiding key steps in an algorithm. In one of the draft documents produced by a member of the IETF IPR Working Group ("Guidelines for Working Groups on Intellectual Property Issues") it is stated: "It will always be better for the Internet to develop standards based on technology which can be used without concern about selective or costly licensing. However, increasingly, choosing an unencumbered technology over an encumbered alternative may produce a significantly weaker Internet. Sometimes there simply isn't any unencumbered technology in an area."