Beating the System: Abuses of the Standards Adoption Process

Jason Kipnis, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP

1/01/2005
(Original Publish Date: 2000)

The current processes by which telecommunications standards are adopted are flawed. Certain companies are able to exploit these flaws to extract hundreds of millions of dollars in patent royalties from the telecommunications industry. In particular, companies can: (1) word their patent statements to appear to comply with the bylaws of an organization while not actually doing so; (2) interpret their statements to provide a basis to refuse to offer licenses to certain parties; and (3) hide their intellectual property until after a standard has been adopted and has gained widespread acceptance. Exposure of these strategies may enable contributors to better analyze the patent statements of standard committee members and generate improved organization bylaws.