What Does Reasonable And Non-Discriminatory Mean, Anyway?

Industry standards can lower costs and increase interoperability between related technologies. These standards are developed by standard setting organizations (SSOs), which are voluntary membership groups that often include leaders in the particular field. Given the individual development efforts that precede the establishment of an industry standard, individual SSO members often have patents covering one or more aspects of the standard. If an SSO member has a patent covering an essential aspect of an industry standard, the SSO will require either licensing assurance or a disclaimer that the claims of the so-called standard essential patent (SEP) will not be enforced. Such a licensing assurance must be on terms that are described as "reasonable and non-discriminatory," or RAND. The equally non-enlightening term "fair" is often added to this description, making the acronym FRAND. The purpose of the RAND guarantee is to encourage widespread adoption of the standard