SEPs and Standards Leaders discuss pressing topics in San Diego

On June 15th 2023, for a second time, the Annual Conference on Global Standards Leadership brought together thought leaders on standardization, Intellectual Property, government, and academia. I organized the conference together with my event co-founders Kirti Gupta (CSIS) and Justus Baron (Northwestern University). We know each other for over 10 years when we started our careers in the space of standards and SEPs. Kirti became a though leader organizing impactful conferences to discuss the importance of Intellectual Property and standards with policy makers. Justus created a community of leading academics presenting empirical research on SEPs and standards. Tim founded IPlytics to help patent portfolio managers, licensing executives and legal advisors to better understand the world of SEP ownership, patent pools and litigation. The idea when founding this conference was to connect the world of policy, academia and industry by inviting experts with different perspectives to meet, connect, discuss and debate. For us its important to invite professionals with different opinions about how we should promote a world that supports common standards and the innovation it enables.

This year, the Global Standards Leadership 2023 took place at the University of California San Diego. About in total 200 in-person and online participants discussed the most important and salient technological trends in global standardization; recent evolutions in standardization policy in different regions of the world; current challenges to the governance of standards development processes; as well as the potential reforms to the system for licensing Standard-Essential Patents (SEPs) in view of the EU commissions draft SEP regulation proposal. The conference featured a mix of keynote addresses, panel discussions, and open debates that I summarized below. Also find the link to the video recording here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuawRRiYF4qot0wySzSBDTzXBpX_TeQeM

Welcome Remarks - Tim Pohlmann ( LexisNexis IPlytics GmbH )

In my welcome remarks I addressed the need for common standards that must work across borders. Standards development for technologies such as cellular technology, wireless technology, video, and audio codec and others have been a huge success story for the past 20 years. However, today not only our phones are connected but also the world around us. Many of us already live in a fully connected home where the heater, the air conditioning, the electricity meter, TVs, security systems or even washing machines are all connected. Connectivity is everywhere and connectivity standards are already today implemented across industries such as automotive, logistics, energy, healthcare, home appliances or even military technology. In my speech I discussed that the world we live in today is in a much more disunited position. Geopolitical tensions are increasing the risk of geographic fragmentation. And this matters for technology standards. If the world begins to fracture just at the same time our digital worlds start coming together, devices and machines could lose the ability to communicate across borders, limiting the exponential potential of digital innovation. Because when devices don’t speak the same language, whole systems may stop functioning, critical information gets lost and that is not only costly it will also harm our economies and the world we live in.

The topic of this year’s Global Standards Leadership Conference 2023 was to discuss the challenge to develop common technology standards ensuring interoperability and a fair SEP licensing system, that provides patent holders a reasonable return on R&D investment but at the same time enables different vendors that implement standards to compete and deliver innovation.

Keynote 1: Global Technology Trends for Standardized Technologies

Speaker: Kavon Nasabzadeh (Ofinno)

Ofinno CEO Kavon Nasabzadeh held the first keynote at this year’s Global Standards Leadership Conference giving a captivating talk that illustrated how AI influences standards development for 5G, VVC or Wi-Fi but also vice versa how standards will influence the development of AI algorithms. Technology standards define the technical infrastructure for global communications networks and global supply chains. Disruptive technological innovation in fields such as AI, and many others, is only possible thanks to worldwide standardization. Today, research and development efforts of innovators around the world are pushing a common technological frontier, rather than creating duplicate, incompatible, and mutually inconsistent regional or national technological systems.

Session 1: Salient Technological Trends for Standardized Technology and its Application

Moderator: Kirti Gupta (CSIS) Speaker: Chris Hannon (USPTO), Peyton Meyer (Haynes Boone), Vishal Sharma, Ph.D. (Metanoia), John Smee (Qualcomm)

In Session 1 of this year’s Global Standards Leadership Conference 2023, a group of technology experts discussed the latest disruptive technological innovations that have been made possible through worldwide standardization in areas such as AI, IoT, blockchain, autonomous driving, and virtual reality. The session elaborated on how the world's innovators are working together to advance a common technological frontier rather than create conflicting regional systems. Still there may be conflicting interest: While governments care about topics such as data protection, nationwide security and national sovereignty, companies create revenue streams across borders to maximize profits. The session discussed how technology standards play a crucial role, providing the technical foundation for communication networks and supply chains across the globe.

Session 2: Global Standards, National Interests – Recent Standardization Policy Evolutions in Different World Regions

Moderator: Justus Baron (Northwestern University Chicago) Speaker: Sukla Chandra (General Electric), Nigel Cory (IETF), Giulia N. (Atlantic Council)

Technology standards have made incredible progress in recent decades, but our world is increasingly divided by geopolitical tensions, which poses a real risk of geographic separation. This is concerning because it could limit the exponential potential for digital innovation if devices and machines can't communicate across borders. At the Global Standards Leadership Conference 2023 in Session 2 a group of standards policy experts tackled this topic head-on with a discussion on how standardization policy is evolving in different regions to balance global standards and national interests. Over the past years an increasing number of anecdotes and miss perceptions have caused political tensions and in some cases led to one sided political decision making. The latest empirical studies for example provided evidence that Chinese companies increased its engagement in global standards setting but at a rate that also reflects the Chinese product market share. The nature of global standards setting is based on consensus decision making and therefore ensures a level playing field where not one country or company can dominate technology decisions.

Keynote 2: The Role of IP in Technology Standards

Speaker: Earl Nied (Veracity-IP)

Earl Nied who was the IP policy director at Intel for 30 years and the IPR director at ANSI for 15 years gave a keynote about the role of IP in technology standards. In a fascinating Ted Talk style presentation, he presented the latest connected medical devices that help diabetes patients. Billions of R&D investments go into the development of standards such as 5G, Wi-Fi or video codec and such innovation is protected by patents. Earl Nied explained that to foster the adoption of such technology standards, different SEP licensing policies such as FRAND but also royalty free will work in different industries.

Session 3: The Evolution of SEP Policy in View of Current Regulation Proposals Moderator: Tim Pohlmann (IPlytics) Speaker: Dave Djavaherian (PacTech Law), David Muus (Sisvel), Jim Harlan, JD/MBA (InterDigital), Taraneh Maghamé (Maghame IP)

The EU Commission’s proposed draft SEP regulation has triggered heated debates about whether there should be a regulatory body that creates a new mandatory register of SEP disclosures and whether a newly formed competence center will help to determine FRAND rates. At the Global Standards Leadership Conference 2023, four SEP experts engaged in a lively discussion about the evolution of SEP policy in view of current draft EU SEP regulation proposals. While Dave Djavaherian and Taraneh Maghame argued that the draft SEP regulation proposal is a first step into the right direction providing more guidance on FRAND determination, David Muus and Jim Harlan strongly reasoned against the proposed SEP regulation. David Muus argued that the way the draft reads the regulation could be a threat to patent pools and commonly accepted market solutions. Jim Harlan feels that the regulation will only create another layer that leads to more hold out. While the discussion was heated and controverse, all experts could at least agree that the current draft still needs improvement and is yet too vague.

Keynote 3: The Fundamental Importance of Global Standards Speaker: Walter Copan (Colorado MINES)

Walter Copan provided a summary of the fundamental importance of global standards and the role of standard setting bodies. Copan argues that the governance and the rules of the worldwide standardization ecosystem are of fundamental importance to its legitimacy and resilience. Due process in standards development is critical to ensure that standardization decisions are objectively justified, rather than driven by narrow agendas or particular interests. Standardization processes must be transparent and open, including smaller players and societal stakeholders that are often under-represented.

Session 4: Maintaining Open and Consensus-based Standards Development amid Geopolitical and Patent Policy Divisions

Moderator: Ur?ka Petrov?i? (Hudson Institute) Speaker: Harry Bims, PhD, SMIEEE (IEEE), Etienne Chaponniere (Qualcomm), Gordon Gillerman (NIST)

Session 4 of the Global Standards Leadership Conference 2023 provided a deep dive into the importance of preserving open and consensus-based standards development in a time where geopolitical challenges and changing patent policy are prevalent. Speakers of the session 4 provided valuable insights from experts at 3GPP; IEEE, and NIST shedding light on this crucial matter.