De Jure Standard Setting in the Telecom Industry – Its Evolution and the Developing Country Case for Reform

Abstract

The issue of technological standards has become increasingly important in the context of telecommunications technology. With every new generation of mobile technology, the issue of determining standards has become progressively more complicated. Most literature on this issue has focused on the standard setting process or the litigation that has resulted around the enforcement of patents over technical standards. There is, however, relatively little scholarship that studies the issue of standards through the prism of developing countries and the unique challenges they face in regulating technological standards which they are bound to protect under international IP agreements, despite the fact that they have little influence over the process by which these standards are set. The structure adopted by this chapter is as follows: Part I will provide a brief history of the standard development organisations in the context of the telecommunications industry, focussing on the demise of both, the ITU and the monopolies in the telecommunication industry. Part II will explain how the global intellectual property landscape has changed post the Agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and its impact on the standard debates from the perspective of developing countries. Part III will focus on the manner in which the de jure standard development process works and the commonly raised issues in this regard. Part IV will examine the challenges faced by developing countries like India in ex-post regulation of these standards. Part V will reflect on the lessons learnt and propose the manner in which developing countries may try regulating their standards.