The intellectual property policies of international Standard-setting organizations (SSO)

Abstract

International technical standards are standards with international recognition that are created with the purpose of ensuring that products and services are safe, reliable and of high quality, serving as a reference for national technical standards and regulations. However, if countries decide to apply international technical standards to establish their domestic technical standards and regulations, and international standards are covered by intellectual property rights (which are exclusive private rights), the effective application of international standards at the domestic level depends on the license of the holders of these rights, under the terms and conditions imposed by them. In this sense, if rights holders are not willing to grant licenses on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms (FRAND), or refuse to grant such authorization to use the technology, users of the standards encounter difficulties or are even unable to do adopt a certain international technical standard. Considering the complexity that this situation generates for the adoption of international technical standards, this study aims to analyze the intellectual property policies – in matters of patents, computer programs and trademarks - of international technical standardization bodies, observing the measures applied with the purpose of promoting the adequate adoption of international technical standards that incorporate technologies protected by intellectual property rights in their technical specifications.