Persistance et intensité des conflits entre normalisation et propriété intellectuelle : les enseignements de la 3e génération de téléphonie mobile

In this article the aim is to analyse new conflicts between technical standardization developed in Standard Setting Organizations (SSO) and intellectual property rights. More precisely, we start with few past examples of conflicts (GSM and other standards) and we put in light the tremendous increase of such conflicts over the last 20 years as well as the changes of the behaviour of firms. The tragedy of the anti-commons and the multiplication of patents in more and more complex technologies, create a difficult situation of IP management. Some solutions have been established but they seem insufficiently strong. SSOs have proposed some solutions such as FRAND conditions (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory conditions of disclosure and licensing). Competition rules could be used to sanction bad disclosure such as hold-up. Unfortunately, as regards 3G, the constitution of platforms and patent pools have not yet resolved the crucial problems of royalty setting and royalty stacking, which could may result in high final prices for consumers.