Commissioner Kroes welcomes SMEs ideas on ICT standardsBrussels, 20 October 2009. Commissioner Kroes gave vigorous support to the idea of “ex ante mandatory disclosure”of rates of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in standards during her speech in Brussels on the 15th of October.
The European Commissioner for Competition Policy warned her audience on the dangers of "patent ambush", "when a company taking part in the standard-setting process hides the fact that it holds essential IPRs over the standard being developed, and starts asserting such IPRs only after the standard has been agreed and other companies are “locked in” to using it". Mrs. Kroes then took a strong stance in favour of ex ante disclosure of maximum royalty rates of IPRs in standards:
"I see no inherent reason why such a mechanism would fall foul of the competition rules, unless it is some kind of smokescreen for a cartel."
This is a somehow revolutionary idea for the treatment of IPRs in standardization, and one that PIN-SME has been promoting jointly with NORMAPME since the beginning.
Ms Kroes also highlighted that the EC had obtained a significant change in the attitude of Microsoft towards interoperability. PIN-SME acknowledges that this is also the result of its intervention in the antitrust case where the SME association supported the views of the Commission accusing Microsoft of binding Explorer to the operating system.
The full speech of Mrs. Kroes is available at the following e-address:
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/09/475&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
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