Litigating Intellectual Property Covering Industry Standards

I. Introduction¹

Companies increasingly find themselves embroiled in intellectual property disputes involving industry standards. Fueling this trend, among other things, is the proliferation of licensing programs. Faced with economic challenges, technology companies are taking a careful look at all assets, including their intellectual property, to determine whether they can be leveraged to generate additional operating revenue. Maintaining patent portfolios developed at substantial cost during brighter days can now represent a drain on corporate resources. Companies are mining their patents to determine whether some that were being held for defensive or other strategic purposes should be sold or licensed. Some technology companies are selling patents that no longer relate to core products or patents that may have related to a shuttered business. In order to create revenue streams, other companies are licensing their patents that relate to sought after technology where