"But that's my point - the question in this trial wasn't whether the State can use closed standards as law, but whether someone can violate the copyright of the

"But that's my point - the question in this trial wasn't whether the State can use closed standards as law, but whether someone can violate the copyright of these standards just because the State refers to them in the law." The answer is yes. :) At best, it's a taking. "My point exactly! They should be suing the State for doing that! Not trying to invalidate some company's copyrighted standard." You have this very backwards, in the sense that the organization deliberately worked with the states to make this happen. You would have a better argument if the states had forced it to happen. In any case, you also have "who should sue who" wrong. 1. You can't sue the states in federal court they have sovereign immunity ;) But if you could .... 2. At best, this is a taking by the state. It's the problem of the standards folks to sue the state, not the problem of the rest of the world of trying to use the law.