Public Dominated Standardization: Evidence from AVS Case in China

Using the perspective of Social Studies of Technology (SST), this paper inquires into how the public interest of users and proprietary interests of "essential" patent holders can be reconciled in so called "Fair, Rational and non-Discrimination" (FRAND) and Royalty Free standard setting process. Using the case of Audio Video coding Standard (AVS) in China, we analyze the mechanisms for treating the stakeholders of AVS workgroup and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) of their technical contributions. Based on the analysis, we formulate a Public Dominated Model of standardization (PDM), which can be used to guide standard development aimed to protect public interest and minimize the possibilities of excessive private rents associated with the standard.