IPR Policy as Strategy – The Battle to Define the Meaning of FRAND

The current contentions over SEP licensing in mobile telecommunications is primarily a result of the success of standardization to build a multi-trillion-dollar market. This success has generated a large economic surplus, whose distribution among different actors in the value chain is the focus of these contentions. This article illustrates the battle among market actors to define the meaning of FRAND through policy interventions that seek to change the rules of the game in alignment with their strategic interests. This article takes a first step towards building an operative model to describe the political processes behind the construction of the meaning of FRAND by defining the self-assertive interests, key normative concepts and claims, and legitimizing arenas where the concept of FRAND is actively socially constructed.

By Bowman Heiden¹

I. INTRODUCTION

This article illustrates the battle among market actors to define the meaning of FRAND through policy interventions that seek to change the rules of the game in alignment with their strategic interests. While many scholars have discussed the concept of FRAND, there has not yet been a holistic study of the political processes behind the construction of its meaning.² This article takes a first step towards building an operative model by defining the self-assertive interests, key normative concepts and claims, and legitimizing arenas where the meaning of FRAND is actively being socially