Frand Royalties: Rules V Standards?

Royalties for intellectual property (IP) are like taxes. Everyone agrees that some limits are necessary. However, no one agrees on the levels at which the limits should be set. One way to overcome disagreement consists in asking if a legal rule or standard should govern the limits of IP royalties.

This paper discusses this issue in the context of Standard Essential Patents (“SEPs”) governed by a commitment to license on Fair Reasonable and Non Discriminatory (“FRAND”) terms. The paper finds that FRAND rules generally surpass standards, but only under specific conditions.