Google, Apple trade views on standards, patents with U.S. Senate committee

Google, Apple trade views on standards, patents with U.S. Senate committee:

Last week Google submitted a letter to the U.S. Senate’s Judiciary Committee outlining their views regarding technologies that become de facto standards and how patent laws should be applied. Of course the subjects of standards and patents is of great interest to Google as they are involved in numerous lawsuits revolving around these issues.
Google’s General Counsel Kent Walker set forth an argument in the letter to the Judiciary Committee that focused on proprietary non-standard technologies. Walker argues that some technologies become ubiquitous due to their popularity and should be considered de facto standards. As such, enforcement of patents on these technologies and allowing the prevention of their use ends up harming the competitive market and ultimately, consumers.
As expected, Apple took a contrary view as expressed in a letter from their General Counsel, Bruce Sewell, to the Judiciary Committee. Sewell explains that just because “a proprietary technology becomes quite popular does not transform it into a ‘standard.’” Sewell argues that standards-essential patents apply to technologies that promote interoperability and thus become a platform for competition. Technology popularity is determined by either industry adoption as a standard or consumer adoption as a result of popularity. Treating the technology on the two paths the same way will harm innovation.
The letters are surely part of the legal positioning both companies are engaged in as they pursue litigation on a number of fronts related to patents. Any guesses as to whether they will be effective?
source: AllThingsD

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