IEC, ISO and ITU, the world’s leading developers of International Standards, agree on common patent policy
Use of International Standards to disseminate innovation encouraged by new agreement
We are pleased to inform you that the world’s leading international standards organizations have adopted a harmonized approach to address the inclusion of patented technology in standards. Under the banner of the World Standards Cooperation (WSC), IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission), ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and ITU (International Telecommunication Union), have aligned their policies which allow for commercial entities to contribute the fruits of their research and development (R&D) activity safe in the knowledge that their intellectual property rights are respected.
In today’s commercial world, there is significant investment in R&D activity. A solid patent policy provides crucial investment protection while also opening-up intellectual property resources for broad implementation across the industry.
The policy adopted by the three organizations strongly encourages the disclosure of patented technology which is necessary for the implementation of a standard before the standardization process has been completed. It allows for companies’ innovative technologies to be included in standards as long as such intellectual property is made available under reasonable and non-discriminatory terms and conditions. In addition, IEC, ISO and ITU have jointly adopted Guidelines for the Implementation of the Common Patent Policy and a Patent Statement and License Declaration Form. See ISO/IEC Standards and Patents
In addition, each of the three WSC organizations also has an online patent database to facilitate the work of the standards developers and to assist companies wishing to implement international standards/recommendations that include patented technologies.
Press release: IEC, ISO and ITU, the world’s leading developers of International Standards agree on common patent policy 19 March 2007
