Patents and standards in the telecommunications industry

The goal of standardization is to allow/ the interoperability of products made by different equipment manufacturers based on open technical specifications. The goal of patenting a technical innovation is to have the exclusive rights for commercial exploitation of the invention for a period of time. This article elaborates on the compilation by F. Ramirez-Mireles in 2006, describing the general guidelines used by international standardization bodies to incorporate patented technology into the standard, and also to license this patented technology to other members of the standardization committee. It also discusses some of the issues arising from patent abuse and noncompliance of those guidelines.