Standard setting in information and communications technologies

An international forum on technology, standards and business opportunities for the intellectual property rights industries will be held in Munich, Germany, on 3 and 4 November 1998. The forum will be the last in a series of five, organised within the framework of the EU-funded project on an intellectual multimedia property rights model and terminology for universal reference (IMPRIMATUR) of the EU's research programme for Information Technologies (ESPRIT).

The forum will focus on key issues which affect the development of business and technology standards for on-line trade in copyright, in particular the problems created for the information and communication technologies by a slow and cumbersome standards procedures. This has led to these industries floating their own proprietary systems onto the market due to the lack of agreed standards, leading to conflicts of opinion as to the way forward, some proposing standardisation based on proprietary systems, while others propose consortia-based standards. Without interoperability, however, the electronic commerce marketplace will become very fragmented.

The topics to be discussed in detail during the conference, will include:

- The role of governments in standard setting;
- The place of standards in a competitive, fast evolving marketplace;
- The legitimacy of consortia-based standards as opposed to public authority standards;
- Proprietary technology in place of publicly-agreed standards;
- The necessity for top-down standards in certain circumstances;
- Competitive advantage and participation in standards activities;
- The need for interoperability and ownership and exploitation of copyright patent pools.
For further information, please contact:

ALCS Ltd
Imprimatur
Marlborough Court
14-18 Holborn
London EC1N 2LE
United Kingdom
Tel. +44-171-3950670; Fax +44-171-3950680
E-mail: imprimatur@alcs.co.uk