Phillip Taylor MBE review. The Cambridge Handbook of Technical Standardization Law

BOOK REVIEW

THE CAMBRIDGE HANDBOOK OF TECHNICAL STANDARDIZATION LAW
Further Intersections of Public and Private Law

Edited by Jorge L Contreras

ISBN: 978 1 10712 971 9

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS



GROUNDBREAKING RESEARCH INTO THE LEGAL ASPECTS OF TECHNICAL STANDARDS AND STANDARDIZATION:
THE COMPANION VOLUME TO ‘PATENTS, COMPETITION AND ANTITRUST’

An appreciation by Elizabeth Robson Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers and Phillip Taylor MBE, Head of Chambers, Reviews Editor, “The Barrister”, and Mediator

As Cambridge has long been recognized as pre-eminent in scientific research, it is not too surprising that this legal text on technical standardization law has been published by the Cambridge University Press. A companion volume to ‘Patents, Competition and Antitrust’ the handbook has been referred to as groundbreaking, as it undoubtedly is.

Containing an impressive range of commentary from leading experts in this field, it presents a comprehensive examination of legal issues affecting standardization. It may not have occurred to some of us, but as editor Jorge L Contreras points out, standardization as such, is a necessary and well-nigh ubiquitous driver of change ‘in the modern networked economy.’

Standardization tends to inspire inventive minds to innovate on top of established technologies. Railroad tracks and telephone lines are only two commonplace examples which illustrate the necessity for standardization in past decades.

Soon, however, innovations such as automated vehicles, artificial intelligence (AI) and “the Internet of Things” will develop in directions that are now difficult to predict using standardized technologies.

Particularly interesting is the article by contributor Emily S. Bremer which compares government use of standards in the United States and the European Union. Worldwide, she explains, ‘many standards are developed by private or nongovernmental standards development organisations.’

These standards, she adds ‘are used by many different people and entities across all sectors of industry, ensuring smooth functioning of the economy, facilitating technological advancement and protecting public health and safety.’

In its breadth of coverage of this subject, this volume has been described as unique, as its erudite team of fifteen international contributors examine the key legal issues which affect standardization. It does raise awareness that on both side of the Atlantic and elsewhere, current research and development activities — mostly private sector initiatives — are ‘overseen, regulated and constrained by a range of legal frameworks,’ including international trade law, administrative law, tort law, trademark law, certification and copyright law, from which issues of intellectual property obviously emerge.

Judging by its impressive bibliography of almost thirty pages, this book, with its illuminating commentary, is obviously the result of careful and extensive research and therefore a valuable investigative tool for practitioners, judges and academics keen to enhance their understanding of this particularly fascinating and fast developing area of law.

The date of publication of this hardback book is cited as at 26th September 2019.