The European Commissioner for Competition Policy warned her audience on the dangers of "patent ambush", "when a company taking part in the standard-setting process hides the fact that it holds essential IPRs over the standard being developed, and starts asserting such IPRs only after the standard has been agreed and other companies are "locked in" to using it". Mrs. Kroes then took a strong stance in favour of ex ante disclosure of maximum royalty rates of IPRs in standards:

"I see no inherent reason why such a mechanism would fall foul of the competition rules, unless it is some kind of smokescreen for a cartel."

This is a somehow revolutionary idea for the treatment of IPRs in standardization. Such idea has been openly supported by NORMAPME that:

1) has obtained that "ex ante" is included in the EC White Paper on modernizing ICT standardisation,

2) is advocating for "ex ante" in the EXPRESS group for the revision of the standardization system.

Ms Kroes also highlighted that the EC had obtained a significant change in the attitude of Microsoft towards interoperability, which we acknowledge also as a success of PIN-SME that has intervened in the antitrust case against Microsoft in support of the Commission's position.

The full speech of Mrs. Kroes is available HERE

In 2004, the European Commission published recommendations for improving the European standardisation system (COM(2004) 674). A study on the access to standardisation of all stakeholders (including SMEs) was then launched. This study has been carried out by EIM, a contractor appointed by the European Commission.

After having consulted NSOs, ESOs and member states, EIM drafted a questionnaire which included questions on the participation of SMEs in technical committees at national and European level as well as on the purchase and uptake of standards by enterprises. The questionnaire was then submitted to stakeholders from 12 Member States (Czech Republic, Spain, Sweden, Cyprus, Estonia, France, United Kingdom, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland).

NORMAPME actively contributed to the drafting of the questionnaire to make it as relevant and simple as possible, and added its members to the list of stakeholders to be consulted by EIM. A web version of the survey was also publicly available; it was accessible to all and was considered as a good medium to express SMEs' points of views.

NORMAPME was present during the presentation of EIM's final report during the last European Commission's Steering Committee on the 3rd of February 2009. NORMAPME actively debated with the participants on the main results of this study. NORMAPME insisted on the importance of having a uniform way of registering participation in standardisation across all National Standardisation Bodies. NORMAPME also insisted on the need to agree on set definitions of the different categories of stakeholders, and suggested that individuals who participate in meetings clearly state which organisations or interests they represent.

NORMAPME welcomed that DG ENTR/E.3 stressed that NORMAPME needs to intervene at European level, as the positions of SMEs are sometimes watered down through the system of national delegations.

The final report has now been issued and published. In addition, a brief presentation of the main findings is available HERE

The group decided to commission the Rotterdam School of Management to undertake a study toward the enhancement of the value of standardisation and standards for SMEs and to reduce their financial impact. The project addressed European standards (including their development) and standardisation, and related these to the business goals of SMEs.

The contractor and his staff developed a set of 58 solutions: primarily, for greater benefit to be obtained from standards; and secondly, to achieve greater benefit from involvement in standardisation, and thirdly general solutions to facilitate these aims.

A survey of both NSBs and trade associations showed support for almost the entire set of the proposedsolutions. Many of the proposed solutions are in place already in a substantial number of NSBs. SME organisations have been very ac tive and have contributed considerably to this study: 16 people coming from SME associations contacted by NORMAPME responded to the survey circulated by Prof. De Vries to our secretariat. Some of these associations also contributed to this study with examples of good practices (Confartigianato, IFD, and ECAP). According to the report, SMEs may face the following sequence of barriers in order to benefit from involvement in standardisation:

- Awareness of standards;

- Awareness of the importance of standards for the SME's own company;

- Tracing standards;

- Obtaining standards;

- Understanding standards;

- Implementing standards;

- Evaluating the implementation of standards.

Concerning the content of the recommendations outlined in the report, we identified the following problems:

1) Participation and responsiveness SME-only organizations who responded to the questionnaire represent less than 20 % of the respondents. Trade associations representing both large enterprises and SMEs also represent less than 20% of the respondents.

2) Different ranking of priorities between mixed trade associations and "SME only" associations We observed that there existed many differences between SME-only associations and mixed trade associations when it came to the perception of priorities.

3) Difference between SME-only priorities and overall classification We understand that due to the response rate of SME-only associations (which was much lower than if compared to the one of NSBs) many differences exist between the overall classification of priorities and the ones built upon through the collection of SME associations' inputs.

NORMAPME has issued some recommendations on the results of this study, which are available here