Enforcement of essential patents and industry standards: more economic or innovative approach?

Abstract

This paper analyzes the interface between industry standards and enforcement of patent rights. When a patent is incorporated into a standard, the patent holder has economic power to exclude its competitors from the markets and increase prices of products and services deliberately. Under this circumstance, competition laws provide effective remedy against the anti-competitive practice. Nevertheless, this paper asserts that an innovative perspective and the incentive to innovate might need to be taken into consideration.