In recent days, several of the most senior policy makers and legal experts in the intellectual property (IP) space have raised alarms about a troubling patent policy decision that is pending at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), one of the world\u2019s leading technology standards-setting organizations.<\/p>\n
The experts have begun to echo what executives from almost every major wireless research contributor \u2013 including Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, General Electric, InterDigital, Nokia, and Qualcomm, among others \u2013 have been saying for months<\/a>; that a vote expected in early February in the IEEE Board of Directors could disrupt the balance of power between patent holders and users in the wireless space, with immediate implications for Wi-Fi and eventually for many other areas of technology.<\/p>\n This radical new policy would sharply and artificially reduce the level of protection given to Wi-Fi-related patents. If approved, the change would immediately depress the future development of a technology that is used every day by billions of people worldwide precisely because of the historically competitive, balanced standardization process.<\/p>\n The IEEE has requested \u2013 and the DOJ is rumored to be close to issuing \u2013 a Business Review Letter (BRL), which will state whether the U.S. Government views the IEEE policy change as consistent with U.S. antitrust laws.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0Numerous players have challenged the policy and asked the DOJ to shed more light on its opaque decision-making process, but so far without luck. The IEEE process was also one-sided and arbitrary, in total disregard of its mandate to be open and consensus-based.<\/p>\n The IEEE move is wrong on process and wrong on substance, and a growing number of critics agree.<\/p>\n For example, on January 14, Senator Chris Coons<\/a> (D-DE), a respected member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder<\/a>, asking the DOJ to slow down the Business Review Letter due to \u201c<\/strong>serious concerns\u201d about the impact on the competitiveness of American innovators and the U.S. economy.<\/p>\n On January 5, the\u00a0European Commission\u2019s digital policy office issued a letter expressing its concerns about the “significant impact” this change would have on the technology industry.<\/p>\n On November 21, the Board of Directors of the U.S. branch of the IEEE, the IEEE-USA, approved a motion demanding evidence that anyone is being harmed by the organization\u2019s existing patent policy. The American officials also warned their global counterparts that the non-consensus-based process that produced the new policy exposes IEEE to legal actions under U.S. antitrust laws.<\/p>\n