GSMP
Intellectual property
The world is complicated and litigious. The goal of the Global Standards Management Process (GSMP) is to produce open, freely implementable, consensus standards that will bring about improvements in the supply chain. One of our major concerns, therefore, is that a standard will be adopted, become widely implemented, and under gird many business processes only to have someone come along, claim intellectual property rights in the standard, and demand royalties from all users of the standard.
This is not an idle fear:
- Users of the UPC have faced demands for royalties from the Lemelson Foundation based on claims that it owns patents covering barcode scanning
- IBM recently claimed IP rights in XML - a crisis was averted only when it agreed not to press for royalties
- Standards developers seeking to arrive at consensus standards for radio frequency identification standards are hampered by the multitude of patents in the field
The concept of "business process" patents (e.g., one click ordering) is relatively new and adds further complications.
In this framework, GS1 concluded that it was irresponsible to develop standards in the dark about intellectual property rights. Thus, we are now asking all those who are participating in the GSMP to periodically complete a form giving notice of any IP they are aware of that may impact upon a standard under development.
The disclosure form is not a panacea. There may still be relevant IP that is not identified through the disclosure forms. Today, however, we are completely in the dark. With the forms, if we still cannot see the entire forest, we will at least be able to see some of the trees.
While there is a strong preference that GS1 standards be usable without requiring the payment of royalties, we also seek to have standards that are "best of breed". In are cases, this may require the use of intellectual property only available through reasonable and non discriminatory licenses. The form therefore asks GSMP participants; to the extent they can do so, to state the policy of their company with respect to licensing if their company has IP that might be required to implement an GS1 standard.
The disclosure form is just that. It is not used to determine eligibility to participate in the GSMP (although those who are not willing to complete the form will be denied voting rights). It simply adds to the fund of knowledge the standards developer has in deciding what is the best and most appropriate standard to adopt.
Date: 11 February 2003
