''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 (german: Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) is the highest court in the system of ordinary jurisdiction (''ordentliche Gerichtsbarkeit'') in Germany, founded in 1950. It has its seat in Karlsruhe with two panels being situat ...
(german: Bundesgerichtshof, 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 p ...
and
technical standard
A technical standard is an established 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 production methods, ...
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, cop ...
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 l ...
. The Court held that a defendant, accused of
patent infringement
Patent infringement is the commission of a prohibited act with respect to a patented invention without permission from the patent holder. Permission may typically be granted in the form of a license. The definition of patent infringement may v ...
and who was not able to obtain a
license
A license (or licence) 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 party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...
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 optical disc storage format. A CD-R disc is a compact disc that can be written once and read arbitrarily many times.
CD-R discs (CD-Rs) are readable by most CD readers manufactured prior to the i ...
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. Standards organizations, therefore, often require members disclose and grant licenses to their paten ...
*
European Union competition law
European competition law is the competition law in use within the European Union. It promotes the maintenance of competition within the European Single Market by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies to ensure that they do not crea ...
*
Rainbow Books, 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
{{Germany-law-stub