IRMA-International.org: Creator of Knowledge
Information Resources Management Association
Advancing the Concepts & Practices of Information Resources Management in Modern Organizations

Patents and Standards in the ICT Sector: Are Submarine Patents a Substantive Problem or a Red Herring?

Patents and Standards in the ICT Sector: Are Submarine Patents a Substantive Problem or a Red Herring?
View Sample PDF
Author(s): Aura Soininen (Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland and Attorneys-at-Law Borenius & Kemppinen, Ltd, Finland)
Copyright: 2008
Pages: 38
Source title: Information Communication Technologies: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Craig Van Slyke (Northern Arizona University, USA)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-59904-949-6.ch023

Purchase

View Patents and Standards in the ICT Sector: Are Submarine Patents a Substantive Problem or a Red Herring? on the publisher's website for pricing and purchasing information.

Abstract

Multiple cases have been reported in which patents have posed dilemmas in the context of cooperative standard setting. Problems have come to the fore with regard to GSM, WCDMA, and CDMA standards, for example. Furthermore, JPEG and HTML standards, as well as VL-bus and SDRAM technologies, have faced patent-related difficulties. Nevertheless, it could be argued that complications have arisen in only a small fraction of standardization efforts, and that patents do not therefore constitute a real quandary. This article assesses the extent and the causes of the patent dilemma in the ICT sector through a brief analysis of how ICT companies’ patent strategies and technology-licensing practices relate to standard setting and by exemplifying and quantifying the problem on the basis of relevant articles, academic research papers, court cases and on-line discussions. Particular attention is paid to so-called submarine patents, which bear most significance with respect to the prevailing policy concern regarding the efficacy of the patent system.

Related Content

Christine Kosmopoulos. © 2022. 22 pages.
Melkamu Beyene, Solomon Mekonnen Tekle, Daniel Gelaw Alemneh. © 2022. 21 pages.
Rajkumari Sofia Devi, Ch. Ibohal Singh. © 2022. 21 pages.
Ida Fajar Priyanto. © 2022. 16 pages.
Murtala Ismail Adakawa. © 2022. 27 pages.
Shimelis Getu Assefa. © 2022. 17 pages.
Angela Y. Ford, Daniel Gelaw Alemneh. © 2022. 22 pages.
Body Bottom