Standards and intellectual property rights: an economic and legal perspective

The authors are concerned with the reconciliation of private rights that intellectual property rights (IPRs) represent with the public benefit deriving from properly developed technical standards. One of the key difficulties in achieving this aim is that IPRs are increasingly perceived as conflicting with other norms; in particular, the relationship between intellectual property law and competition/antitrust law has, in recent years, been characterized as one between ‘‘evil and good’’, respectively; however, both authors argue that this is an oversimplistic characterization, miscasting the roles of both bodies of law and ignoring the multifaceted nature of their interrelationship, including the possibility of common goals. 2003 Published by Elsevier B.V. JEL classification: K39