Technical standards
Technical standards include basic technical standards, product standards, process standards, testing and test method standards, and safety, health, and environmental protection standards.
Technical features
First, each enterprise forms the technical standards of each product by providing its own technology and patents to the standards organization;
Second, enterprise products The production is carried out in accordance with such standards. All products pass a unified standard, and devices can be interconnected, which can help companies sell products better;
Three, companies in the standards organization can share each other’s patented technologies in a certain way.
Supplement
Standards formulated for technical matters that need to be coordinated and unified in the field of standardization are called technical standards. It is a common technical basis for production, construction and commodity circulation. There are many classification methods of technical standards. According to the characteristics and functions of their standardization objects, they can be divided into basic standards, product standards, method standards, safety and health and environmental protection standards, etc.; according to the role of their standardization objects in the production process, they can be divided into zero Component standards, raw material and blank standards, tooling standards, equipment maintenance standards and inspection standards, etc.; according to the mandatory degree of the standard, it can be divided into mandatory and recommended standards; according to the scope of application of the standard in the enterprise, it can be divided into companies Standards, work standards and department standards, etc.
The process of formulating technical standards involves two core issues: who should be the main body of formulating standards, the government, the enterprise, or the third party; whether the standards should be "open" or "closed." There are also "questions" that are not a problem, such as whether the government can formulate mandatory standards. (In the interpretation of the regulations, the government can formulate mandatory standards for the four situations involving safety; the US government also has mandatory standards, such as the emc certification standard. So we will not focus on the discussion.)
On the question, is there a common misunderstanding of thinking among all parties, that is, "either one or the other": For example, the subject can only be this, not that; the form can only be this, not that. The conclusion is: according to the main body and form of the formulation of the standard, the rules are different, and the rules are not stringed. This means that the government, third parties, and companies can all be the main body of formulating rules; both open standards and closed standards can be formulated. However, in different situations, the applicable rules of the game are different, and the rules that apply to one subject and form cannot be replaced by another subject and form.
Authorization standards and non-authorization standards
Standard form
This concept is not rigorous. It is recommended to replace them with "non-licensed authorization standards" and "licensed authorization standards" "(Referred to as "authorized standard", "non-authorized standard"). The authorization standard refers to a situation: the standard has a unique relationship with the relevant patents and technologies of the designated enterprise, and the patents and technologies are obtained by the authorized government-licensed enterprise. Non-licensed standards refer to the patents and technologies involved in the standards that are not provided by franchised companies, and consumers can obtain relevant products in market competition.
The reason is that the so-called "open" and "closed" in open standards and closed standards, in exceptional cases, the substance and form may be opposite, which is easy to cause confusion. For example, a standard formed by openness may be closed in nature; a standard formed by closed may be open in nature.
The former situation often occurs during the formation of de facto standards. For example, the doc file format is formed as a de facto standard through market opening, but the content is closed and monopolized. This situation also exists in the standards of some standards organizations. For example, in the second generation of mobile communications, Ericsson, Nokia, and Motorola control the inter-base station controller interface standards of gsm systems that are not open. The latter situation often appears in government standards. Some standards formulated "closed" are anti-monopoly and therefore open to all parties in the market, or they are fair and open to the public interest in the market.
Closed standards
With the use of special authorization, you can clearly determine the difference between the two at a glance:
Any closed standards formed by openness must show a tail in the end. It is the transition zone between standards and products, and there are problems with the licensing of patents and technologies bound to standards. The characteristic is that patents are hidden in the standard, commonly known as standard patenting. In response to this increasingly common international trend, the EU has included the opening of licenses as a condition in its jurisprudence restricting the abuse of intellectual property rights. For example, the "Megall TV Guide" lawsuit in Ireland. In this case, the TV program preview is open, but the license for reprinting is closed. According to the fact that the license is refused, in accordance with Article 86 of the Treaty of the European Communities (prohibition of abuse by any enterprise in the common market) Its monopoly position to restrict competition) made a decision to open the license for reprinting.
Open standards
Except for the fact that the substance is consistent with the form, the criterion in the case of contradictions is to see whether it will eventually entrain patents, licenses and other intellectual property requirements. The standards organization rejected Sun’s request for patents and trademarks on Java based on the thoroughness of the open standards. Only standards that do not entrain patents are open standards (it does not mean that patent entrainment standards are not good, and it will not work. Some standards organizations, such as the oasis organization, have opened this aspect). In the discussion in the previous paragraph, many people actually called the patent-entrained standards formed by the market as open standards, which was inaccurate. The de facto standard formed by market monopoly cannot be called an open standard, because the monopoly of the manufacturer itself is a kind of closure to the right of public choice.
Various combinations of the subject and form of standard formulation are possible
In many disputes involving the subject and form of standard formulation, this kind of specious judgment can often be seen. For example:
—Based on the public interest, the government should not formulate mandatory standards and should not interfere with the formation of information technology standards.
The emc certification standard that can be implemented by the American fcc to control the wireless leakage energy level of electronic products is not a mandatory standard, is it not a typical government intervention? This article falsifies the above view.
—The standards formulated by standards organizations or enterprise alliances are open standards.
But isn't the Bluetooth standard a typical closed standard? This one falsifies it again.
—A company alone cannot set standards on behalf of the public interest.
But isn’t the Java standard that the standards organization entrusted Sun to master? This article also directly falsifies the above-mentioned argument.
Formulation and revision
All clothing products that are normally produced in batches should comply with the relevant standards or customer requirements, otherwise the company can develop its own company Related standards. Generally, any individual or enterprise can propose a draft standard. Those that belong to national or professional standards must be reviewed by the standardization technology focal unit;
After the standard is established, it should be revised and used for practice and trial. It will be revised and supplemented. After being approved by relevant departments, it can become a technical standard.
The formulation and revision of technical standards should implement the spirit of how fast, better, and economical, reflect the national economic and technological policies, adapt to market needs, be based on the status quo, and have a certain degree of advancement;
The formulation and revision of technical standards must be carried out on the basis of full research and extensive consultation, and the international common standards and foreign advanced standards must be carefully studied and actively adopted so as to be in line with the international trade and production system.
Development trend
The advent of the era of knowledge economy has made the competition for technical standards in the world more and more fierce. Whoever sets the standards recognized by the world will get huge Market and economic benefits. Therefore, for a period of time, governments in developed countries have been scrambling to increase their efforts to carry out standardization strategy research, trying to firmly grasp the initiative in the competition of technical standards. At present, the EU has more than 10 thousand technical standards, Germany has about 15,000 industrial standards, and Japan has more than 8,200 industrial standards and more than 400 standards for agricultural products.
(1) As a specific activity of human society, technical standards have changed from the past mainly to solve the common and interchangeable problems of product parts and components, and are becoming more and more important barriers for a country to implement trade protection. , The main form of so-called non-tariff barriers. According to statistics, the number of cases in which developing countries are restricted by technical barriers to trade is about 3.5 times that of developed countries.
(2) Technical standards and patented technologies are becoming more and more inseparable. In traditional industries, technological changes are slow, and economic benefits mainly depend on the scale of production and product quality. Technical standards are mainly to ensure the interchangeability and versatility of products, and technical standards are separated from technical patents. Today, for high-tech industries, economic benefits depend more on technological innovation and intellectual property rights, and technical standards have gradually become the highest embodiment of the pursuit of patented technology. A new concept has emerged abroad: third-rate companies sell coolies, second-rate companies sell products, first-class companies sell patents, and super-first-class companies sell standards.
(3) Technical standards have increasingly become the commanding heights of industry competition. Technical standards have become the commanding heights of competition in industries, especially high-tech industries. In traditional large-scale industrial production, products come first and standards come later. In the era of knowledge economy, standards often come first, and this is even more obvious in the field of high-tech industries. For example, there was an IP protocol before Internet applications. Before the commercialization of high-definition color TV and third-generation mobile communications, the war on standards was in full swing. Regarding the competition of high-tech standards, in the final analysis, it is a competition for future products, future markets and national economic interests. Because of this, technical standards are not only favored in the product field, but also have become one of the powerful means to seize the commanding heights of the service industry. Another noteworthy phenomenon is that more and more so-called de facto standards have emerged in addition to international standards. For example, although the Windows operating system of Microsoft Corporation and the microprocessor of Intel Corporation in the United States have not become international standards, they are in fact recognized by the world and "winner takes all". The emergence of de facto standards is an important new feature of the new economic era.
Significance
Technical standards research and management experts generally believe that the development of technical standards is inseparable from the progress of science and technology. Technical standards are based on the comprehensive results of science, technology and practical experience; under the conditions of a market economy, the results of scientific and technological research and development are transformed into technical standards through certain channels, and the implementation and application of technical standards, that is, standardization, promotes scientific and technological research and development results Transform into productivity; and in the process of technical standards implementation and the transformation of scientific and technological research and development results into productivity, market information and feedback can counteract the revision and improvement of technical standards and scientific research and development activities, thereby promoting technical standards and technological development.
The improvement of the development level of technical standards is an organic part of a country’s R&D activities and technological progress. The former is not only the result of the latter, but also an effective driving force for the development of the latter:
First of all, the emergence and development of technical standards are premised on technological progress. Regardless of the industry, only when technological advancement makes large-scale production possible, can technical standards emerge as a necessary tool for the implementation of large-scale production and operation; accordingly, the formulation of technical standards must also be based on scientific research and development and related scientific and technological achievements. The foundation, its formulation and modification cannot be separated from the corresponding technological level, otherwise, its applicability and effectiveness will be greatly reduced or even disappear completely.
Secondly, the development of technical standards and standardization and technological progress promote each other. The emergence of technical standards is in response to the economic and social needs of the development of science and technology to large-scale production. Once they appear, they can in turn improve the production and operation efficiency of microeconomic entities, enabling them to invest more resources in R&D activities. In turn, the application and promotion of new technologies and new processes enables the formulation and implementation of higher-level technical standards to be supported technically and economically; the competition and cooperation of micro-economic entities make technical standards and scientific research and development activities within the entire society Promote each other to show the interactive development of the standard development level and the technological progress level at the macro level.
Again, the development level of technical standards is consistent with the transformation level of scientific and technological progress results, that is, the technological intensity of economic activities is consistent. After the industrialization has developed to a certain stage, the relationship between technical standards and scientific research and development is more closely related to the two. The person becomes an organic whole. From the perspective of industry and the overall national economy, whether it is a labor-intensive, capital-intensive, or technology-intensive industry or economy, as long as it is in an economy after the start of industrialization, technical standards will be the first to be formulated in the manufacturing industry. Promotion and revision, and thus affect various industries; when the industrial structure is upgraded to the secondary industry taking the leading position in the social economy, the position of technical standards in the entire social economy will rise together with technological research and development, becoming the main driving factor of social productivity. Since then, with the further upgrading of the industrial structure, the role of technical standards and standardization and technological research and development in promoting social and economic development has further increased, and the relationship between the two has become increasingly close. In technology-intensive industries or economies, technical standards It is one of the starting points of scientific and technological research and development, and its formulation and revision are also important achievements of scientific and technological research and development.