DOCUMENT #: GSC15-IPR-03

FOR: Presentation

SOURCE: ITU

AGENDA ITEM: 4

CONTACT(S): antoine.dore@itu.int

IPR issues and ITU’s standardization activities

Antoine DoreLegal Officer, ITU

Global Standards Collaboration (GSC) GSC-15

Overview of the Patent Policy and Guidelines

ITU-T and ITU-R possess and follow a Common Patent Policy with ISO and IEC. Common Patent Guidelines complement the Common Patent Policy.

TSB Director receives guidance from his Ad Hoc Group for IPR matters.

IPR AHG is studying possible revisions to the Common Policy and Guidelines.

2

Overview of the Patent Policy and Guidelines

Purpose: To ensure that patents embodied in ITU Recommendations (standards) are accessible to everyone without undue constraints.

No technical limitations on the inclusion of patents in ITU standards.

Disclosure rule:• “…any party participating in the work of ITU, ISO or IEC

should, from the outset, draw the attention of the Director of ITU-TSB, the Director of ITU-BR or the offices of the CEOs of ISO or IEC, respectively, to any known patent or to any known pending patent application, either their own or of other organizations…”

3

Overview of the Patent Policy and Guidelines

Licensing Declaration must be made using a standard form.

Discussions on licensing terms and conditions are held outside ITU.

Disputes are also settled outside ITU. No patent search required.

Current Activities

Some topics addressed during the last IPR AGH meeting (February 2010):• Definition of Patent and the concept of essentiality in the

Patent Guidelines• Issue of transfer/assignment of patent rights• A full review of the Software Copyright Guidelines was

launched• Potential Competition issues in the conduct of Study

Group meetings Target: to issue a revision of the Patent Guidelines in March

2011

5

Trends and Statistics in ITU-T

Number of Patent Declaration Statements by region.

Asia at the forefront of innovation. Declared Licensing options over the last decade. Standards against which Patent Declaration

Statements have been made. Patent Declaration Statements per area of

standardization.

Number of Patent Declaration Statements received by region (ITU-T)

7

Note: data refer to ITU-T

Asia at the forefront of innovation Japan, China and Korea: among the top 5 patenting

nations. In 2009, Asia submitted more Patent Declaration

Statements than Europe for the first time over the last decade.

Asia’s engagement in international standardization activities is steadily increasing.

Note: data refer to ITU-T

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Asia at the forefront of innovation

Since 2002, Korea has been in the top 10 countries submitting Patent Declarations annually.

2009 was the first year in which China had the second highest number of Patent Declaration Statements.

Bridging the standardization gap: Africa and South America have submitted no Patent Declaration Statements over the last decade.

Note: data refer to ITU-T

Asia at the forefront of innovation: the case of China

Over the past 5 years, there has been a 5-fold increase in the number of input documents submitted to ITU-T by China.

Since 2008, the number of Chinese delegates in ITU-T SG meetings has more than doubled.

For the study period 2009-2012, Chinese representatives have been elected to 9 Study Group Management Teams.

At WTSA-08, the Chinese delegation was among the largest. (Of the 10 largest delegations, 5 were from Asia).

China’s influence over future international standards is growing.

Note: data refer to ITU-T

Declared Licensing options over the last decade

Note: data refer to ITU-T

Standards against which Patent Declaration Statements have been made

Note: data refer to ITU-T

Standards against which Patent Declaration Statements have been made

Key to horizontal axis on previous slide:A: Organization of the work of ITU-T

D: General tariff principles

E: Overall network operation, telephone service, service operation and human factors

F: Non-telephone telecommunication services

G: Transmission systems and media, digital systems and networks

H: Audiovisual and multimedia systems

I: Integrated services digital network

J: Cable networks and transmission of television, sound programme and other multimedia signals

K: Protection against interference

L: Construction, installation and protection of cables and other elements of outside plant

M: Telecommunication management, including TMN and network maintenance

N: Maintenance: international sound programme and television transmission circuits

O: Specifications of measuring equipment

P: Terminals and subjective and objective assessment methods

Q: Switching and signalling

R: Telegraph transmission

S: Telegraph services terminal equipment

T: Terminals for telematic services

U: Telegraph switching

V: Data communication over the telephone network

X: Data networks, open system communications and security

Y: Global information infrastructure, Internet protocol aspects and next-generation networks

Z: Languages and general software aspects for telecommunication systems

Note: data refer to ITU-T

Patent Declaration Statements per area of standardization

8 of the 23 areas of standardization have received no Patent Declaration Statements

The areas of standardization that receive most Patent Declaration Statements relate to voice over IP and multimedia codecs (G & H Series).

Note: data refer to ITU-T