Cheers and jeers greet IEEE’s updated standards-related patent policy
The IEEE Standards Association on Sunday announced an update to its standards-related patent policy that would provide greater clarity and predictability for patent holders and implementers. The organization said the update resulted from a rigorous two-year process that involved input from a range of stakeholders who may choose to develop standards within the IEEE-SA framework.
If a patent is implicated in a standard, standards bodies generally require that the patent holder be willing to license it on fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory terms, as Karen Bartleson, senior director of corporate programs and initiatives at Synopsys, explained in a DesignCon keynote address. But as Don Clark reports in The Wall Street Journal, groups don’t tend to define what “reasonable” means.
Clark writes that companies including Intel, Apple, and Microsoft favored the IEEE’s change, while Qualcomm is opposed, with Qualcomm VP Sean Murphy calling the update a “seismic shift.” Clark quotes Cindy Faatz, director of Intel’s standards group, as saying, “The proposed updates are pro-competitive, pro-consumer, and they will promote and reward innovation.”
Clark cites an example of how the new policy might work: Qualcomm charges smartphone makers a royalty based on a percentage of a handset’s wholesale cost; the new policy suggests the percentage should apply to the chip.
The updated policy could have implications for the rollout of 5G.
The IEEE-SA Board of Governors approved the update December 6, 2014, and the IEEE Board of Directors voted to approve the update yesterday.—Rick Nelson
