The Relationship Between Open Source Software and Standard Setting

Knut Blind, and Mirko Böhm

2/10/2020
(Original Publish Date: 1/1/2019)

This report has been developed in the framework of the 2017 Communication of the European Commission 'Setting out the EU approach to Standard Essential Patents' (COM(2017) 712 final). In this Communication there is a direct commitment that 'The Commission will work with stakeholders, open source communities and SDOs for successful interaction between open source and standardisation, by means of studies and analyses'. Standards and open source development are both processes widely adopted in the ICT industry to develop innovative technologies and drive their adoption in the market. Innovators and policy makers assume that a closer collaboration between standards and open source software development would be mutually beneficial. The interaction between the two is however not yet fully understood, especially with regard to how the intellectual property regimes applied by these organisations influence their ability and motivation to cooperate. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the interaction between standard development organisations (SDOs) and open source software (OSS) communities. The analysis is based on 20 case studies, a survey of stakeholders involved in SDOs and OSS communities, an expert workshop, and a comprehensive review of the literature.