A Practical Guide to Patent Policies of Standards Development Organizations

Over the past several years, there has been a surge in litigation over technical standards, standards-essential patents (SEPs), and the patent policies of standards development organizations (SDOs). While this litigation has fueled a cottage industry of commentary by economists, legal scholars, and other pundits, much of this literature is mired in complexity and inaccessible to the engineers and business managers that must make decisions regarding participation in SDOs on a daily basis. This article seeks to explain some of this controversy and the resulting policy decisions that a business manager may be called upon to make for his or her organization when evaluating joining and participating in an SDO.