Enforcing the Standard by Copyright Restrictions

Some standards become laws that everyone must obey. For example, in the United States there are uniform codes regulating the building, electrical, and plumbing trades. Contractors may not build things that violate those industry standards.

Many state and local laws mandate industry standards without actually stating the standard; they incorporate the standard by reference to some specification published by a standards organization. These standards have the force of law and must be obeyed. Courts in the United States have only recently addressed the issue of standards organizations being able to charge fees for the public's right to copy industry standards that are enforceable under the law. In some jurisdictions, royalties for the right to make copies of laws are no longer allowed.

Some companies and other nongovernmental organizations also want to control industry standards. Since those industry standards are not adopted by legislatures as laws, they cannot be enforced like building, electrical, and plumbing codes. Private owners of the intellectual property in standards can enforce their standards privately, under contract law and through the application of copyright, patent, and trademark law, by controlling license rights to the specifications of the standards.

As described below, some of those copyright, patent, and trademark licenses are compatible with open source and open standards.