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The interactive seminar is titled "Standard Setting in a Changing World: The Growing Influence of Europe and Asia," and it will highlight the important events and trends abroad that U.S. standards developers, users and policy makers need to be aware of and understand. Two consecutive panels of experts -- one covering Europe and one covering Asia -- drawn from standard setting organizations (SSOs), industry and government will explore these important issues.

The intended audience for the event is managers of both consortia and accredited standards development organizations, member representatives, government employees, the press, and anyone else with an active interest in the intersection of standards, open source, and business.

Confirmed panelists for the European discussion include:

-- Carter Eltzroth, Legal Director of the DVB Project, a Geneva-based standards forum creating technical standards for worldwide digital television;

-- Jorgen Friis, Deputy Director-General at the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI);

-- Paula Hunter, Business Development Director at the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL);

-- Penny Naas, Director, Office of EU and Regional Affairs, United States Department of Commerce; and

-- Moderator: Andrew Updegrove, co-founder and partner, Gesmer Updegrove LLP, and founder and editor, ConsortiumInfo.org.

The issues the Europe-focused panel will consider include:

-- The ongoing European Union investigations into "ambush patents" and the scrutiny by EU enforcement authorities of SSO IPR policies; and

-- The increasing adoption of open source software by state, national and regional governments.

Confirmed panelists for the Asia discussion include:

-- Kathleen Kono, Vice President, Global Cooperation, ASTM International;

-- Michael Hoghooghi, Director, Corporate Standards and Technology, Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.; and

-- Moderator: Frank X. Curci, partner in the Standards and Intellectual Property practice at Jennings, Strouss & Salmon, PLC

The issues the Asia-focused panel will consider include:

-- The effects of China's increasing focus on the strategic importance of standards (and of controlling how they are set);

-- The use of the WTO process and the foreign policy of individual nations to influence China's standards policies;

-- Practical and operational issues SSOs will face as they reach out to Asian member companies and make them equal partners in developing technology standards; and

-- Review of some current Asian standards initiatives (WAPI, TD-SCDMA), to illustrate the effect of what has already occurred, and what can be expected in the future.

The afternoon's discussions will complement the next day's ANSI-sponsored conference addressing the legal (e.g., antitrust and patents, copyright and tort liability) and legislative aspects of standardization and giving consideration to the distinction between Open Source and Open Standards.

Open to the public at no charge, the October 5 event is sponsored by Kavi Corporation, ConsortiumInfo.org/Gesmer Updegrove LLP, Virtual, Inc. and Jennings, Strouss & Salmon, PLC. It is the fourth in an ongoing series of programs exploring best practices in standard setting. Location is the Marriott at Metro Center.

Additional details on topics and panelists are available at http://seminar.kavi.com. A series mailing list is offered by event organizers at http://seminar.kavi.com/subscribers to ensure that anyone interested receives prompt and direct notice of new information. Though there is no fee to attend, space will be limited and prior registration is required, at https://seminar.kavi.com/events/.

About the Seminar Series

SSOs, both accredited and consortia, play a vital role in the technology industry, helping create sustainable new industries through cooperation and interoperability. Without global standards, there can be no global markets. Because SSOs vary widely in structure, objectives, policies, degree of openness and degree of formality, there is no definitive set of best practices that applies across the spectrum of SSOs.

Given the importance of standards to the overall technology industry, and as a service to the standards community, Kavi Corporation, an application service provider for technology consortia and professional associations; ConsortiumInfo.org, the most extensive on-line resource on standards and its host, Gesmer Updegrove LLP, a leading Boston-based technology law firm; Jennings, Strouss & Salmon, PLC, a prominent Phoenix-based technology law firm; Virtual, Inc., an SSO management company; and 3, the public communications co., a marketing communications firm specializing in promoting global brands; have developed this seminar series for leaders and innovators in standard setting to share perspectives and experiences on best practices for standard setting.