A Beginner's Guide To Standards-Essential Patent, Standard-Developing Organizations And [F]RAND Terms In The Smartphone Patent Wars.
Last Monday, on August 26, 2013, the Microsoft Corporation v. Motorola Mobility (a wholly-owned Google subsidiary) breach-of-FRAND-contract trial kicked off in Seattle [1] . It’s already the second trial in this case; a first trial took place in November 2010 [2] . The federal jury in Seattle has already rendered a verdict on this case, and Microsoft has won again. Even though a case between two giants is always exciting, this article will just deal with the meanings of technical legal terms surrounding this case, such as standards-essential patent (SEP), Standard-Developing Organizations (SDO) and FRAND/RAND terms [3] ; terms which also have significant interest and impact in the smartphone patent wars. As we all know, the economic role of intellectual property rights , more precisely patents, is very significant. The patent system promotes innovation and economic growth by providing incentives to inventors to apply their knowledg...