1) Open standards are important for enabling innovation, boosting transparency, avoiding lock-in, and ensuring economic growth. They facilitate interoperability between software. 2) For a standard to be considered truly open, the intellectual property covering the standard must be made irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis. There should also be no constraints on reusing the standard. 3) Ensuring transparency in patent licensing and favoring ex ante over ex post disclosure of intellectual property terms is important for preventing obstacles in the software industry and allowing interoperability through open standards.

1. Open Standards and Intellectual Property Rights Trond Arne Undheim, PhD Director Standards Strategy and Policy EMEA Licensing Executives Society, Amsterdam, 29.09.08 http://www.2008.les-benelux.org/

3. <Insert Picture Here> “ Opting for open standards is a very wise business decision indeed.” Nelly Kroes DG COMPETITION

5. <Insert Picture Here> “ The Internet is fundamentally based on the existence of open, non-proprietary standards.” Vint Cerf Father of the Internet