Economics Commons^™

Competition Policy For Industry Standards, Richard J. Gilbert

Richard Gilbert

This paper is a chapter in the forthcoming Oxford Handbook on International Antitrust Economics. The chapter surveys issues raised by the development of industry standards, whether accomplished through a formal standard setting committee structure or the activities of a single sponsor. The focus is on the tradeoff between the benefits from standards and possible costs that standards and the activity of standard development may impose on consumers. A particular focus is on the consequences of intellectual property rights for standards.