In high-technology sectors, uniform industry standards are crucial for ensuring product compatibility. For decades, the government had the primary responsibility for developing these standards. Over the last several years, the government has increasingly delegated this responsibility to private standard development organizations (SDOs), and Congress passed the Standards Development Organization Advancement Act of 2004 to encourage private organizations to assume this role. SDOs rely on a consensus-based approach in which industry participants agree on which technology will comprise a particular standard.

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