The Technical Standardization Ecosystem and Institutional Decision Making: The Case of Intellectual Property Rights Policies

46 Pages Posted: 20 Jul 2020 Last revised: 22 Jul 2020

See all articles by Justus Baron

Justus Baron

Northwestern University - Center on Law, Business, and Economics

Jorge L. Contreras

University of Utah - S.J. Quinney College of Law

Martin Husovec

London School of Economics - Law School

Pierre Larouche

Université de Montréal; Center on Regulation in Europe (CERRE)

Nikolaus Thumm

Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin)

Date Written: May 14, 2020

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze decision making on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) policies in the standardization ecosystem. While a large literature has studied IPR policies of Standard Developing Organizations (SDOs), we contribute a more rigorous analysis of how these IPR policies are shaped by the interdependencies between SDOs and between SDOs and a variety of stakeholders. While SDO stakeholders often have opposing policy preferences, they are tied together by non-generic complementarities and a joint interest in the overall performance of the standardization system, which are constitutive characteristics of an ecosystem. The standardization ecosystem is characterized by widely shared institutional norms, which – in the field of IPR – result in the preponderance of what we call a “Baseline Policy”. SDOs’ positions in the ecosystem contributes to explain where in the ecosystem institutional innovations going beyond the Baseline Policy are more likely to arise. We analyze different mechanisms of transmission of such novel practices, such as emulation and precedent.

JEL Classification: L15, L31, O34, O36

Suggested Citation

Baron, Justus and Contreras, Jorge L. and Husovec, Martin and Larouche, Pierre and Thumm, Nikolaus, The Technical Standardization Ecosystem and Institutional Decision Making: The Case of Intellectual Property Rights Policies (May 14, 2020). TILEC Discussion Paper No. DP2020-014, University of Utah College of Law Research Paper No. 375, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3600819 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3600819

Justus Baron (Contact Author)

Northwestern University - Center on Law, Business, and Economics ( email )

375 E. Chicago Ave
Chicago, IL 60611
United States

HOME PAGE: http://justusbaron.org/

Jorge L. Contreras

University of Utah - S.J. Quinney College of Law ( email )

383 S. University Street
Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0730
United States

Martin Husovec

London School of Economics - Law School ( email )

Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE, WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

Pierre Larouche

Université de Montréal ( email )

Montreal, Quebec H3T 1B9
Canada

Center on Regulation in Europe (CERRE) ( email )

Rue de l'Industrie 42
Brussels, 1040
Belgium

Nikolaus Thumm

Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin) ( email )

Straße des 17
Juni 135
Berlin, 10623
Germany

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