Preface

As the common language in the field of human technology， standard plays an important role in industrial society and market economy， and serves as important “infrastructure” in economic activity.Standard system is in a unity of opposite to the patent system.With the development of high technology and under double impact of the subjective and objective factors， technical standard is increasingly linked to a variety of intellectual property rights， showing the trend of patent standardization， whose intellectual property rights and dominance in industries has far-reaching influence in related industries through amplification of standard network effects and lock-in effect.Domestic and foreign lawsuits related to patent standardization occur frequently， which highlights patent hold-up issue in the patent standardization， and attracts broad attention in judicial， industry and academia field.The mainstream international standardization organizations have been actively exploring the strategy to patent standardization.

Patent Standardization issues become increasingly complex.Patent hold-up is the most fundamental problem in the integration of standards and patents in the sense that once an item of invention is adopted by standard， the patent owner will obtain certain advantage to other competitors in market， that is， other competitors have no choice but use the patented technology to comply with the standard.This will possibly enable the company to gain huge amount of patent fee through licensing， which obviously hinders other businesses from use standard.Patent hold-up manifests in many forms， including the improper disclosure of patent information in violation of FRAND principle， acts of unfair competition in contrary to the prior commitment， unfair licensing or denial of permission by ultra-high pricing， and so on.

Patent standardization involves a number of complex policy and legal issues， behind which exist theories and disciplines that influence its development and changes in a deeper sense.Patent suprematism concept dominates the whole history of patent system， it's been enduring for the longest time.And now this concept also overruns into the field of patent standardizatioon， mainly in the form such as patent hold-up in which technical standard is subject to intellectual property rights， the patent policy in standard-setting organization is over-emphasis on patent right as private right and on freedom of patent protocol， weak control on the obligation of disclosure of patent information in technical standardization in standard-fixing organization policy， ambiguous RAND patent licensing condition， non-examination of examining patent information and non-involvement in intellectual property rights disputes by standard-setting organization， and so on.All these conditions enable the patent owners to abuse their patent rights fused into the technical standard， and put the whole standard in hostage.Patent suprematism is a historical product， with certain specific historical background.Nowadays， the concept of the patent suprematism is increasingly becoming barriers to innovation， and bring hug uncertainty to patent standardization.This is an issue worthy of reflection.

It's a complicated and systematic job to solve the problem of patent standardization， requiring exploration of solution from different perspectives， high integration of standard and intellectual property right， and balance between easy performance of standard and popularization of patented technology.Therefore， on the basis of improvement of patent law itself， consideration shall be made mainly on the improvement of the patent policy in standard-setting organization， coordinated with contract law， tort law and anti-trust law to solve the problem of patent standardization systematically.First of all， Patent suprematism concept should be replaced by innovation suprematism concept， which shall be used as a scale to measure the specific legal system， and the setup of legal regulation measures about patent standardization shall also be carried out under this concept.The doctrine of estoppels in equity law and the principle of good faith in civil law should be adopted to set up a system suitable for common use of civil law， intellectual property rights law and anti-trust law， and in laws and regulations shall clearly states general strategy and principle for standardization of intellectual property rights， and estoppels principle， implied license principle and joint tort liability.In detail， this includes improving procedures and intellectual property rights policy in standard-setting organization， restricting patent standardization through patent law， regulating patent standardization through anti-trust law， improving judicial relief procedures for patent infringement， and finally promoting technological innovation.