Standard setting occurs in many sectors of the technology industry and can benefit consumers. Standards make it possible for products supplied by different firms to operate together. That can increase the number of sellers in a market and avoid confusing choices for consumers when products are not compatible. But standard setting also poses some risk of harm to competition. By allowing firms with competing technologies to pick a winner rather than letting consumers decide in the marketplace, companies could try to manipulate the process for individual gain, and undercut the benefits for consumers. The FTC strives to counteract that risk, investigate and, when necessary, take action against anticompetitive activities that undermine the standard-setting process. This page provides links to the FTC’s cases, workshops, reports, and speeches related to standard-setting issues.

• Cases
  
  
  • Rambus Case Docket
    
    
  • Unocal Case Docket
    
    
• Workshops
  
  
• Standard Setting in the Semiconductor Industry: Trends, Benefits and Anti-Competitive Concerns FTC/DOJ Hearings on Competition and Intellectual Property Law and Policy in the Knowledge-Based Economy
  Washington, D.C., Wednesday, March 20
  
  
• Hearings on Global and Innovations Based
  Competition
  Washington, D.C., December 1, 1995
  
  
• Speeches
  
  
• "Rambus: Dangers of Deception in Standard-Setting Organizations,"
  Ken Glazer, with Suzanne Drennon, presented to Law Seminars International Conference on Standards Bodies & Patent Pools, Arlington, Virginia, October 11, 2007.
• Recognizing the Procompetitive Potential of Royalty Discussions in Standard Setting
  Deborah Platt Majoras, Stanford University, Stanford, California, September 23, 2005