Image - The War on Standards
Past Event

The War on Standards: 5G, IoT and the Threat to Competition and Innovation Across the Economy

America’s startup ecosystem is the envy of the world, but it could be sidelined in the race to 5G and miss out on the $10 trillion opportunity that the Internet of Things (IoT) represents.

Connectivity standards such as 5G, Wi-Fi and TCP/IP were developed to facilitate interoperability, enable competition and promote innovation across the economy. Startups, in particular, rely on standards to compete on a level playing field with the world’s technology giants.

The Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust case against Qualcomm put a spotlight on the anticompetitive behaviors of standard-essential patent (SEP) holders transforming 5G and other wireless standards from competition and innovation-enhancing platforms into a tool to keep competitors at bay. Until recently, few outside of the smartphone industry paid attention to the weaponization of standards, but America’s struggles in the race to 5G highlight the long-term threat. In many cases, major LTE and 5G SEP holders refuse to discuss license terms with startups or component suppliers, leaving them mired in uncertainty and unable to predict costs for customers. Moreover, Huawei and ZTE are major 5G SEP holders, and industry observers are concerned that they could easily weaponize their own SEPs to prevent or slow down American competitors. For America’s startup ecosystem, observers suggest that the weaponization of standards presents a potentially bigger threat than patent trolls ever did. What does all of this actually represent in terms of threats to competition and Innovation?

Schedule 

12:15 p.m.: Doors open, complimentary continental lunch, soft drinks and water available

1 p.m.–2:05 p.m.: Keynote
The Canary in the Coal Mine: Auto Industry and Standard Essential Patents

Chris Storm, IP Legal Director for Emerging Technology Programs, Uber

The automotive industry is the newest target for companies looking to capitalize on standard-essential patents for market power with several auto manufacturers and suppliers—including Daimler, Tesla, Continental and Valeo—already in litigation related to SEP abuse. Analysts predict the automotive industry will be the single largest market opportunity for 5G IoT solutions by 2023, representing 53 percent of the total 5G IoT endpoint market, making the auto sector the proverbial “canary in the coal mine” for other industries. What does the sector bode for others?

2:20–3 p.m.: First panel discussion
The Weaponization of Standards and Why it Matters

Tom Cotter, Briggs and Morgan Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law
John “Jay” Jurata, Partner and Practice Group Leader for Antitrust and Competition, Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
Additional Panelists TBA

The weaponization of standard-essential patents to choke off competitors and demand monopoly profits poses a threat to the critical role standards such as LTE, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth play in facilitating interoperability, enabling competition and promoting innovation across the economy. Over the past several years, critics say a group of key SEP holders have waged a global campaign to get out of the voluntary commitments they made to license their SEPs under fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory (FRAND) terms. Critics say this group has asked courts, regulators and politicians to allow SEP holders to refuse licenses to competitors, force implementers to license patents that are irrelevant to the standard and even use SEPs as leverage to force companies to cross-license patents entirely unrelated to the standardized technology. To make matters worse, critics say that allies of these SEP abusers have threatened antitrust suits against standard setting organizations that try to enforce their FRAND requirements. If they are successful and other SEP holders adopt the same practices, what will the long-term effect be, particularly for America’s startup ecosystem?

3:05–3:45 p.m. Second panel discussion
5G & the Future of Competition, Innovation and Security

Kent Baker, Head of Intellectual Property, u-blox AG
Gil Ohana, Senior Director, Antitrust and Competition, Cisco Systems
Additional Panelists TBA

The U.S government has declared 5G equipment from Huawei and ZTE to be a national security threat but is said to be struggling with a plan to boost American 5G telecom equipment. This panel will explore how the weaponization of standards could threaten interoperability, competition and innovation in telecom infrastructure and throughout every sector of the economy that uses wireless connectivity to deploy new IoT capabilities. The panel will cover recent research in the importance of open standards to ensuring competition in digital markets and look at ways SEP abuse could distort markets or create new chokepoints for global competition.

3:45 p.m.–4:45 p.m.: Networking reception
Complimentary beer, wine and soft drinks available

Notes

Sponsored by ACT | The App Association; includes lunch

March 25, 2020

The Commonwealth Club
110 The Embarcadero
Taube Family Auditorium
San Francisco, 94105
United States