BRUSSELS, 28 Sept. 2005 – The Business Software Alliance on Wednesday welcomed an agreement by leading standards experts that open standards and intellectual property rights co-exist.

 “To recognize that Open Standards (OS) and Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) do – and should – coexist is an important step in understanding the mutually beneficial role of OS and IPRs and in moving the debate to examining the proper functioning of information and communications technology standards,” said Benoît Müller, Director, Software Policy (Europe) for the BSA.

“His comments followed a high-level meeting of ETSI, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, at which ETSI took a decisive step towards resolving the debate about the definition of an open standard by acknowledging that open standards and intellectual property rights can—and do—co-exist. ETSI further resolved to continue to act as a think-tank on interoperability and IPRs in standards.

The purposes of open standards are clear: to facilitate interoperability between different kinds of IT systems; support fair trade and fair competition; increase user, consumer, and government confidence; and stimulate innovation. The criteria for a standard to qualify as “open,” however, have been the subject of intense debate.

Participants at the ETSI meeting welcomed a recent resolution from the Global Standards Consortium – an informal international body coordinating ICT standards organisations from Europe, America and Asia – on essential characteristics of Open Standards. The GSC resolution defines an Open Standard, among other criteria, to be “subject to fair/reasonable and non-discriminatory Intellectual Property Right (IPR) policies which do not mandate, but may permit, at the option of the IPR holder, licensing essential intellectual property without compensation “.

About BSA

The Business Software Alliance (www.bsa.org) is the foremost organization dedicated to promoting a safe and legal digital world.  BSA is the voice of the world's commercial software industry and its hardware partners before governments and in the international marketplace.  Its members represent one of the fastest growing industries in the world.  BSA programs foster technology innovation through education and policy initiatives that promote copyright protection, cyber security, trade and e-commerce. 4D, Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, Avanquest Software, Avid, Bentley Systems, Borland, Cadence Design Systems, Cisco Systems, CNC Software/Mastercam, Corel, Dell, Entrust, Graphisoft, HiT Internet Technologies, HP, IBM, INSYSTEK, Intel, Intergraph, Internet Security Systems, iQuate, LMS International, Macromedia, McAfee, Mamut, Microsoft, Microstar, Monotype, Nemetschek, O&O Software, OWG, Panda Software, PTC, Realviz, RSA Security, SAP, SGS, SIA, SolidWorks, SP Grupo Sage, Softline Pastel, Staff & Line, Sybase, Symantec, Synopsys, The MathWorks, UGS Corp., Visma, WRQ and Young Digital Poland.

About ETSI:

One of three official EU ICT standards organizations, ETSI is home of ICT standards such as the GSM standard for mobile telephony. www.etsi.org/SOS_Interoperability/

About GSC:

The Global Standards Collaboration (GSC) is an initiative of the ITU, ETSI, the United States' Committee T1 and the Japanese TTC. GSC provides for the regular exchange of work programmes and other information in a number of agreed high-interest technical areas, and has attracted a growing number of other participants from around the world. As its name implies, its goal is to promote global standards in these areas of common interest. http://www.gsc.etsi.org/

For further information:

Brandon Mitchener, +32-2-645-9834 or brandon.mitchener@apco-europe.com

or

John Mandeville, +32-2-645-9842 or john.mandeville@apco-europe.com

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