The problem seems to be “but whose patents are deemed essential to (its) technical specifications” phrase. I read that as an investigation on this (real or ima

The problem seems to be “but whose patents are deemed essential to (its) technical specifications” phrase. I read that as an investigation on this (real or imaginary; that’s what the investigation is about) stream of events: - AOM members created a standard for which they, together, thought owned all patents - they found out that isn’t true. Other parties hold patent(s) that are essential for the standard. - they strong-arm the holder(s) of those patent(s) to join AOM and, with it, license their patent royalty-free to the others in the group. Whether it happened I wouldn’t know, but step 3 should, IMO, be illegal. Royalty-free cross licensing is more beneficial for those who have the capital to build millions of chips implementing the standard than for smaller players. It’s like a few elephants forcing a mouse to have dinner together and splitting the bill.