Stipulation On Member's Deliberate Failure To Fulfill SSOs' Disclosure Obligation

Along with the globalization of economy, standards have become more and more important in the international trade and the development of industry. If patented technology of a corporation can be incorporated in a standard, this corporation's competence can become much higher than before, and even may acquire monopoly power in the relevant markets. So action of deliberate failure to fulfill the disclosure obligation appears among members of standard-setting organizations (SSO). It makes SSO adopt the standard incorporating its patented technology without being well informed. Since this kind of action may cause extensive damage and great disruption to standard executors and SSOs, it is necessary to research on this topic.The article reckons that rules can be used to regulate the above action include the patent policy of SSO, the patent law, and the anti-monopoly law. These rules apply to different conditions.The patent policy of SSO, as the contract for the third party's benefit, gives standard executors the right to require members of the organization to fulfill contractual obligations and to assume the contract-breaching liability directly. However, the intensity of it is too weak. It can only apply to the conditions that the action described in the article has not reached the extent of patent abuse, and the damage is very limited.The patent law is applicable to the action described in the article constitutes patent abuse, but has not caused the result of anti-competition. In this part the article discusses the compulsory licensing system of Chinese existing law and the'franchise abuse defense'of American Law.The anti-monopoly law should apply to the conditions that the action described in the article has already hampered the market competition. In this part the article expatiates on the attempt to monopolize in the US Anti-Trust legal system through a classic case, and hopes to be useful for China.