A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF A HIGH TECH STANDARDS SETTING ORGANIZATION

John Anthony Chavez, Session Chair, American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law

1/01/2005
(Original Publish Date: 4/25/2002)

Standards that facilitate interoperability are critical in high tech industries and increasingly raise antitrust issues, whether set through a standard setting organization, by ad hoc groups of competitors, or by a single dominant firm. A Year in the Life of a High Tech Standards Setting Organization is sponsored by the following committees: Corporate Counseling, Intellectual Property, Sherman Act Section 1, and Trade Associations. This program, with its distinguished panel and comprehensive program materials, is designed to illuminate a part of this complicated area of the law. The focus of “A Year in the Life of a High Tech Standards Setting Organization” is on the rights and obligations of a patent owner whose patent can preclude others from practicing a standard. A series of brief vignettes will be used to explore issues that can arise in the standards setting process. The brief vignettes will start with the formation of a standards setting organization, proceed through disputes over the nature and extent of any obligation to disclose patents and patent applications, followed by patent infringement litigation and counterclaims, and then conclude with an agency enforcement action. The perspectives of the different participants in the standards setting process will be presented to stimulate debate. In the process, practical advice will be provided by our panel of distinguished speakers.