...the information and communications technology (ICT) industry, where interoperability is often critical. Without standardization, it would not be likely that we would have such “luxuries” as the Internet, wireless access,...
Does standardization ultimately serve as a unifier or as a divider? Is unification or division a better goal? These are some of the questions participants from government, industry, the legal...
...that total freedom without constraints is the best way to spur innovation? And what is the relationship between standardization and legislation? Is legislation pulling standardization too far in its own...
When the Chinese government agreed in mid-April to indefinitely postpone enforcement of its wireless LAN standard, the U.S. chip industry breathed a sigh of relief. But although the postponement averted...
In his recent book entitled The Road Ahead, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates argued that government should get out of the standards setting business. He states, “Sometimes governments or committees set...
There is no agreed upon definition of open standards, and so we don’t always mean the same thing when we talk about them. In this article, Lawrence Rosen proposes a...
...solutions for products and services as well as systems and processes. Standards help create interoperable products, define equal requirements for production processes, set comparable quality criteria or stipulate systems for...
This article discusses the meaning of reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) licensing terms in standards from European competition law perspective. Building on the Microsoft case, the article argues that the competition...
RAND commitments i.e., promises to license on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms play a key role in standard setting processes. However, the usefulness of those commitments has recently been questioned. The...
...progressing from traditional SDA modes, typically involving the selection from many candidate, existing alternative components, into the crafting of standards that include a substantial design component (SSDC), or “anticipatory” standards....