Comparative and Foreign Law Commons^™

Patenting Standards - A Case For Us Antitrust Law Or A Call For Recognizing Immanent Public Policy Limitations To The Exploitation Rights Conferred By The Patent Act?, Apostolos Chronopoulos

Apostolos Chronopoulos

This paper examines the adverse effect of patent ambushing on competitive conditions resulting in the distortion of the standardization process in markets where the effectiveness of competition relies heavily on standardization. The US Rambus litigation serves as a point of departure. In this case, the strategic behavior of the patentee was subjected to both an antitrust and unfair competition analysis. Both approaches display an inadequacy to squarely balance all of the conflicting interests involved. The solution proposed is to apply the patent misuse doctrine as a rule that expresses a public policy defense against patent enforcement so as to ensure …