Competition Policy for Industry Standards

Posted by D. Daniel Sokol

Richard Gilbert, University of California, Berkeley has written Competition Policy for Industry Standards.

ABSTRACT: This paper is a chapter in the forthcoming Oxford Handbook on International Antitrust Economics. The chapter surveys issues raised by the development of industry standards, whether accomplished through a formal standard setting committee structure or the activities of a single sponsor. The focus is on the tradeoff between the benefits from standards and possible costs that standards and the activity of standard development may impose on consumers. A particular focus is on the consequences of intellectual property rights for standards.