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Study on the role of open source in standard setting

The objective of the study is to identify possible commonalities and barriers for interaction between standardisation and open source processes.

The study should clarify the role of open source in the context of standard setting, in particular its interplay with proprietary knowledge solutions (FRAND licensing) and provide an overview of OSS and FRAND features in standardisation.

During the study, a thorough literature review is carried out, a broad set of case studies are analysed and a survey conducted. The study started in January 2018 is expected to finish in April 2019.

The European Commission, in its Communication on Setting out the EU approach to Standard Essential Patents, has committed to working with stakeholders, open source communities and standards development organisations. The involvement of relevant communities to provide input to the case studies and participate in the survey is essential for the success of the study.

The study is important to provide hard facts evidence for the public policy measures in standardisation following the principles of the Communication on the ICT standardisation priorities for the Digital Single Market (2016) but also to contribute to the goals of the Communication on Setting out the EU approach to Standard Essential Patents (2017).

The study on the interaction between open source software and FRAND licensing in standardisation is carried out on behalf of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre by Fraunhofer Institute of Open Communication System FOKUS and Mirko Böhm representing the Open Invention Network.

More information

For more information on the study please contact Knut Blind or Mirko Böhm.