''Orange-Book-Standard'' (Az. KZR 39/06) is a decision issued on May 6, 2009 by the
Federal Court of Justice of Germany
The Federal Court of Justice ( , ) is the highest court of civil and criminal jurisdiction in Germany. Its primary responsibility is the final appellate review of decisions by lower courts for errors of law. While, legally, a decision by the F ...
(, BGH) on the interaction between
patent law
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...
and
technical standard
A technical standard is an established Social norm, norm or requirement for a repeatable technical task which is applied to a common and repeated use of rules, conditions, guidelines or characteristics for products or related processes and producti ...
s, and more generally between
intellectual property law
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, ...
and
competition law
Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust ...
. The Court held that a defendant, accused of
patent infringement
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...
and who was not able to obtain a
license
A license (American English) or licence (Commonwealth English) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit).
A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another part ...
from the patentee, may defend himself, under certain conditions, by invoking an
abuse of a dominant market position.
The name "Orange-Book-Standard" comes from the
Orange Book that contained the format specifications for
CD-R
CD-R (Compact disc-recordable) is a digital media, digital optical disc data storage device, storage format. A CD-R disc is a compact disc that can only be Write once read many, written once and read arbitrarily many times.
CD-R discs (CD-Rs) ...
s, the technology at issue in the case that led to the Orange-Book-Standard decision.
[Mark Schweizer]
"Dutch see Orange Book differently; Philips prevails again"
IPKat, March 18, 2010.
See also
*
Essential patent
An essential patent or standard-essential patent (SEP) is a patent that claims an invention that must be used to comply with a technical standard. Standard-setting organizations (SSOs) normally require their members to agree to license their esse ...
*
European Union competition law
In the European Union, competition law promotes the maintenance of competition within the European Single Market by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies to ensure that they do not create cartels and monopolies that would damage th ...
*
Rainbow Books
The Rainbow Books are a collection of CD format specifications, generally written and published by the companies involved in their development, including Philips, Sony, Matsushita and JVC, among others.
A number of these specifications hav ...
, the collection of standards defining the formats of Compact Discs, including the Orange Book standard
*
Reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing
Reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) terms, also known as fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms, denote a voluntary licensing commitment that standards organizations often request from the owner of an intellectual property r ...
(RAND)
References
External links
*
Decision(case number: "KZR 39/06") (a translation is availabl
here
Further reading:
* Stephan Dorn
Green-Orange-Red, the German Orange-Book decision is putting industry on alert IPEG, September 14, 2009.
Competition law
European Union case law
German patent case law
Works about competition law
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