Interplay between patents and standards in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector and its relevance to the implementation of the WTO Agreements

Xiaoping Wu

No ERSD-2017-08, WTO Staff Working Papers from World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division

Abstract: The interplay between patents and standards in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector has been intensively debated at international, regional and national levels over the past decades. In essence, the debate is firstly about the extent and impact of patent holdup and holdout in the ICT sector, and then about how to eliminate or reduce these practices. While standard setting organizations (SSOs), industry bodies, as well as judicial and administrative authorities have made great efforts to solve the issue of patent holdup and holdout, there is still an ongoing struggle among divergent stakeholders. Patent holdup and holdout directly impacts the innovation and dissemination of patented technology, the harmonization and implementation of standards, and international trade, which are promoted by the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) and the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement). This working paper provides an overview of the current debate on patent holdup and holdout in the ICT sector, analyses existing policy measures and their limitations, and then highlights the relevance of the WTO to this debate.

Keywords: patent; patent holdup; patent holdout; standards; standard setting organizations; FRAND; competition; injunctions; royalties; WTO TRIPS; WTO TBT (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K11 K13 K15 K30 O34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-ict, nep-ino, nep-int, nep-ipr and nep-law
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/157263/1/884367827.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:wtowps:ersd201708

DOI: 10.30875/a7449935-en

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in WTO Staff Working Papers from World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().