Communications Standards and Patent Rights: Conflict or Coordination?

Ken Krechmer, Fellow, International Center for Standards Research University of Colorado at Boulder; Communications Standards Review

1/01/2005
(Original Publish Date: 1997)

Patented technology necessary for the use of a communications system, can create a monopoly. All that wish to use the patented communications system are legally required to pay the patent holder. The patent holder may then have the ability to offer the lowest price. Assuming an efficient market, which the Internet can sometimes be, the patent holder gains a monopoly position. Is this what patents were meant to achieve? This lecture explores some other possible approaches to the inclusion of patents in communications standards.