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IMPACT OF PATENTS ON STANDARDS FOR THE SMART GRID

IMPACT OF PATENTS ON STANDARDS FOR THE SMART GRID. Jeffrey E. Young Patent Attorney Alston & Bird LLP. THE STANDARDS QUEST. BEST PRACTICES May include proprietary technology Patents are issuing on Smart Grid technologies

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IMPACT OF PATENTS ON STANDARDS FOR THE SMART GRID

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  1. IMPACT OF PATENTS ON STANDARDS FOR THE SMART GRID Jeffrey E. Young Patent Attorney Alston & Bird LLP

  2. THE STANDARDS QUEST BEST PRACTICES May include proprietary technology Patents are issuing on Smart Grid technologies EG: FERC policy statement reference to energy storage technology yet to be perfected “Ambient Corporation . . . patents cover the backbone of the Grid.” -- Walt Y. (Smart Grid News comment) UNIVERSAL AVAILABILITY Open source (royalty free) license or Royalty bearing license fair to all (RAND) 2

  3. OPPORTUNITIES & THREATS IN THE STANDARDS PROCESS THERE WILL BE COMPETITION BETWEEN CANDIDATES FOR BEST PRACTICES CONCERNS OF AFFECTED COMPANIES: (1) Influential companies will control standards to their own benefit and marginalize many new technologies. (2) Standards will be set at less-than-best practices, and even if royalty-free, and will force users to license technology from particular patent owners as a practical matter. (3) Only large companies can afford to influence standards by promoting royalty-free donation of IP in the name of speed of adoption, and then dominate the market with help from free technology developed by others. (4) Without patent incentives, investment in innovation will wither. 3

  4. PATHS TO BEST PRACTICES TOLL TOLL BEST PRACTICE STANDARDS Smart Grid Components A-Z Pay RAND Royalty NON-STOP Q TOLL R-V TOLL STAN- DARDS END W-Z Smart Grid Components A-P Royalty Free First Leg, but Standards Fell Short WITH STOPS Negotiate Private Royalties 4

  5. HOW FAR CAN YOU GO “OPEN SOURCE”? TOLL BEST PRACTICE STANDARDS Smart Grid Components A-Z ROYALTY FREE?? NON-STOP • Pitfalls of Open Source (e.g. GPL) Licensing Licensees may be forced to give up IP in follow on technology • Why can you use BlueTooth royalty free but have to pay for mp3? http://mp3licensing.com/ https://www.bluetooth.org/Membership/benefits.htm 5

  6. PATENT OWNER COOPERATION Manufacturer A of servers, routers, grid management software Manufacturer B of power line data link hardware Patent 2 on data link Patent 1 on data link Standard for data link to a power line Royalty-free license RAND license (or opt out) 6

  7. CONTACT INFORMATION THANK YOU! Jeff Young Alston & Bird LLP 1201 W. Peachtree St. Atlanta, GA 30309 404 881 7000 jeff.young@alston.com www.alston.com Link to article: http://www.smartgridnews.com/artman/publish/Overviews_Misc/The_Impact_of_Patents_on_Smart_Grid_Objectives-573.html 7

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