Class 2: How are standards made? A taxonomy of different standards development models
Please read the excerpts from the IPO Standards Primer document in detail, and take some time to carefully understand the taxonomy that the document describes. The other documents should just be reviewed at a high level (i.e. look at section headings and document structure, but don’t read for specific details) as necessary to answer the discussion questions below.
Readings:
Excerpts from Section 3 (“SSO Taxonomy”) of IPO Standards Setting Committee, Standards Primer: An Overview of Standards Setting Bodies and Patent-Related Issues that Arise in the Context of Standards Setting Activities, 2009 IPO Articles & Reps., Pats. Sec. No. 16 (posted: 10/09/2009).
Read the overview of the PCI SIG, along with the Bylaws and the New Member Forms. Try to download a copy of the PCI Express Base 2.1 specification.
Read the EHCI Specification page on the Intel site. Click through on both the specification and the license agreement and skim both briefly.
Download the free version of Recommendation G.9970 from the ITU website. Read the intellectual property notice on page “ii” and briefly skim through a few pages of the rest of the specification.
Discussion questions:
1. What would PCI SIG be called in the IPO taxonomy? What is the ITU called in this model? Does EHCI fit in the taxonomy?
2. Which specifications can you access? Which specifications have explicit license terms associated with them? What would you expect the most important “gives” and “gets” of such license terms to be?
3. Imagine that the PCI SIG Board is considering contributing one of its specifications to the ITU, with the goal of the PCI specification becoming an ITU spec. What pros and cons should the Board consider? What are some pros and cons from the ITU perspective? Are there any legal obstacles that would make this difficult?
Slides:
Linked here (.pdf).
