The International Trade Administration (ITA), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) (the “Agencies”) have spearheaded a national initiative to strengthen U.S. stakeholder participation and leadership in international voluntary, consensus-based, open-participation technology standards. The Agencies’ initiative includes providing support for the goals outlined in the U.S. Government National Standards Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technology (USG NSSCET). ACT | The App Association supports the Agencies’ mission to introduce a reliable, fair, and inclusive approach to the standard setting process for all U.S. stakeholders, including our members.

To ensure a strong presence of U.S. stakeholders in standards development, the USG NSSCET includes commitments such as increasing investment in CET R&D, improving coordination between the public and private sectors on standards, and educating a new standards workforce. The NSSCET also has a focus on strengthening U.S. representation in international standards bodies.

App Association members often operate under resource constraints and require government intervention in order to equitably participate in standards development. The App Association has highlighted the following actions as steps that the Administration should take to encourage U.S. small business engagement in international standards as it implements the NSSCET:

  1. Streamlining Standardization Activities to the Public: USG should provide U.S. small businesses with the latest on standardization opportunities and developments. While larger companies may be more involved and educated about all stages of the standards setting process, small businesses have a much more difficult time tracking the standards process, including what standards are applicable to them. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) require direct outreach and educational opportunities from government and private-sector groups. Fortunately, NIST has some great efforts already underway that can, and should, be built on to support this goal.
  2. Small Business-Focused Support: Small businesses also face significant resource constraints (financial, bandwidth, experience, etc.) when it comes to participating in standards processes. We urge the Administration to provide greater support that will mitigate these constraints for the small businesses that are the primary driver of competition and innovation across CET markets.
  3. Ensuring Domestic Laws and Policy Support the NSSCET’s Goals: The NSSCET can’t be fully implemented when U.S. laws either (1) undermine or contradict those goals and (2) do not address the demonstrated barriers to standards participation and use, so it’s vital that the Administration ensure that U.S. laws and policies, or a lack of action on the U.S. government’s part, do not work against the standards system. As a leading example, the App Association has discussed some of these barriers in more detail here, amongst other places, that government support to prevent demonstrated standard-essential patent (SEP) licensing abuses distort competition and are the single largest barrier to standards use by small business innovators.

Because the App Association is committed to supporting the successful implementation of the USG NSSCET to encourage U.S. small businesses to participate and lead in international technical standards for CETs, and to be able to leverage those standards to innovate and compete, we have engaged extensively with the Administration, providing detailed written comments, participating in stakeholder listening sessions across the country, and bringing together cross-sectoral interests to raise awareness and jointly advocate. Notably, the App Association will continue to answer the call to attain needed legal and policy certainty around SEP licensing, which small businesses, including App Association members, need.

The App Association will host a webinar in January 2024 featuring representatives from NIST to educate our community about the USG NSSCET, how this strategy supports SMB participation in standards development, and how SMB innovators across the CET landscape can get involved. We look forward to providing details and registration information soon.

If you are a U.S. company that would like to provide us with your experience or would like to participate in upcoming NIST listening sessions regarding the implementation of the USG NSSCET, please contact [email protected] for more information.