The Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry has published a tender for a study on the interplay between standards and intellectual property rights (IPRs)

The interaction between standards and intellectual property rights (IPR's) is the theme around which revolves the study whose tender has been published by the Directorate General Enterprise and Industry of the European Commission.

This study should address the following issues:

• Fact-finding, quantification and analysis of the current situation and trends regarding the inclusion of IPR-protected technologies in standards.
• Fact-finding, quantification and analysis of the current situation and trends of financial flows derived from royalties and other compensations for the use of standards including IPR's.
• Fact-finding, quantification and analysis of the current situation and trends regarding disputes (commercial and legal) arising during the standardisation process, and the implementation and the use of standards in relation to the presence of IPR-protected technologies.
• Comparative analysis of the influence of the IPR policies of relevant standards organisations and the practices of stakeholders in different sectors on the relative success of standardisation in fulfilling its role in facilitating innovation, competition and market access. The approach shall appropriately deal with the specificities of relevant technologic sectors, and shall be developed in an international perspective.

The execution time for this tender, which has been issued has been issued on July 18th, is 14 months from the award of the contract, and has a budget of up to 200,000 euros. The deadline for submitting offers expires on September 25th, 2009.