Open Source Software Research
Over the past few years standards development organisations (SDOs) have been assessing how open source software (OSS) could be used to complement standardisation activities.
Given that most SDOs have existing intellectual property rights (IPR) policies based on fair reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) access to essential patents, a key challenge is to explore how OSS licensing (often on royalty free terms) could be compatible with SDOs’ existing IPR policies. Another crucial issue is the competition law implication of involving OSS in standards development. Considering the diversity of views on the topic, 4iP Council created this page to provide some clarity on certain critical aspects based on academic research and articles the research council has published since 2018.