Inventions, Industry Standards, and Intellectual Property

Mark R Patterson, Associate Professor of Law, Fordham University School of Law

1/01/2005
(Original Publish Date: 4/4/2002)

The challenge for patent law in the standard-setting context is to distinguish several different market effects. A patentee is generally entitled to revenues due to the technical advance made by its invention. It is not, however, entitled to revenues due to the incorporation of its invention in an industry standard. Although it may be difficult to distinguish the market effects of the invention and the standard, it is an effort to draw that distinction - rather than, say, a focus on "inequity" or some other concept- that best upholds the incentive-creating goals of patent law while minimizing negative effects on competition.