Technical standards are ubiquitous in the modern networked economy. They allow products made and sold by different vendors to interoperate with little to no consumer effort and enable new market entrants to innovate on top of established technology platforms. This groundbreaking volume, edited by Jorge L. Contreras, assesses and analyzes the legal aspects of technical standards and standardization. Bringing together more than thirty leading international scholars, advocates, and policymakers, it focuses on two of the most contentious and critical areas pertaining to standards today in key jurisdictions around the world: antitrust/competition law and patent law. (A subsequent volume will focus on international trade, copyright, and administrative law.) This comprehensive, detailed examination sheds new light on the standards that shape the global technology marketplace and will serve as an indispensable tool for scholars, practitioners, judges, and policymakers everywhere.

Jorge L. Contreras, J.D. (Harvard University), is a Professor of Law at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, a Senior Policy Fellow at the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property at American University Washington College of Law, and a Senior Fellow with the International Law Research Program of the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). He has written and spoken extensively on the institutional structures and policy implications of intellectual property, technical standardization, and scientific research. Professor Contreras serves as Co-Chair of the American Bar Association Section of Science and Technology Law's Interdisciplinary Division, a member of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) IPR Policy Committee, and a member of NIH's Council of Councils.