Do Royalty-Free Standards “Stifle Innovation?”

Posted by Andy_Updegrove on Mar 4, 2011 8:45 PM EDT
ConsortiumInfo.org Standards Blog; By Andy Updegrove
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According to the Business Software Alliance, the UK government's new royalty-free standards policy will "inadvertently reduce choice, hinder innovation and increase the costs of e-government." 'Zat so?

BSA’s argument is presumably that if patent owners could not charge for the use of their technology by the implementers of standards, they would quit participating in developing standards, or implementing such standards if they would be required to make their own affected patents available to other implementers for free as well. Standards development and implementation would therefore grind to a stop. Theories are all well and good. But what does the marketplace tell us about how patent owners would actually behave under such circumstances?

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Absolutely jhansonxi 0 1,190 Mar 4, 2011 11:51 PM

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