Friday, February 03, 2012

Patent "frand": Apple vs Android

Explained: Apple's not-so-secret favorite patent argument | Mobile - CNET News


Frand--also known as "rand" in the U.S.--is an obscure legal acronym that stands for "fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory," and is based on the principle that fair licensing of intellectual property is often needed because sometimes certain ideas and patents just need to be shared for everything to work together properly...

frand relates to the agreed-on technology used to form the 3G cellular standard called UMTS. Several companies hold what are known as essential patents, and are obligated to license them to all the other participants in a fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory manner...

One issue with the principle is determining what exactly is reasonable...

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