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> Not sure why improving this state of affairs would require a change in underlying patent laws. The problem with this is that there will always be someone who
by frenchy 10y ago
> Not sure why improving this state of affairs would require a change in underlying patent laws.
The problem with this is that there will always be someone who will happily say "Sure, I'll call your patent a 'standard' if you give me a little bit of money to 'certify' it."
- throwawaykf05 10y agoActually the problem these days is that standard-essential patents are considered less valuable because they tend to require FRAND licensing. This is the problem companies like Motorola and Samsung ran into during the smartphone patent wars. They could not ask for injunctions or high royalties for many of their patents as they were standards-essential, and they lost a lot of leverage. Secondly, standards setting bodies are usually a conglomerate of members from competing companies and hence a huge political bureaucratic mess, so it's not as easy to get something into the standard just for some money.
- pdabbadabba 10y agoMaybe. But then there's the little matter of adoption. The fact that some body or other called a patent technology a "standard" is meaningless, and not especially problematic. The problem comes when this standard actually comes into widespread use.