Patents and standardization, part 3: commitments to license standard-essential patents under reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) terms

摘要

Many standards development organizations ask participants who hold patents that may be essential to practice a standard to agree to license those patents under "reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND)" terms. But what exactly are RAND terms? This article discusses the policy of RAND obligations, explains how disputes can arise about whether a proposed license to a standard-essential patent includes RAND terms, and explains how a particular dispute over RAND terms was resolved in a United States district court.