About GISTE

The Global Institute for the Study of Technology Ecosystems (GISTE, pronounced as “jeest”) is a non-profit institute focused on facilitating academic research about complex technology products and the intricate webs of commercial and political relationships that support their development.

GISTE grew indirectly from a project called INPRECOMP—International Patent Remedies in Complex Products—which brought together a broad array of leading patent remedies scholars from around the world to assess the state of international patent remedies law as applied specifically to complex technology products that incorporate potentially thousands of patented elements. This effort included a set of workshops, held in London and Phoenix, and ultimately resulted in a forthcoming book from Cambridge University Press. GISTE embraces and builds upon this unique collaborative model, which demonstrated the value of cooperation between international academic experts, informed by inputs from diverse commercial stakeholders and key global policymakers.

GISTE also has deep roots in collaborative and individual work done by its co-directors, who have been intimately involved in the world of technology standardization for decades, both as scholars and practitioners. Part of the impetus for GISTE was their observation that critical elements of the standardization ecosystem—such as the fundamental role played by industry consortia, and the increasing collision between the traditional standards development process and the world of open source software—receive relatively little attention from academics or policymakers. GISTE intends to fill these gaps, with data-driven analysis.

GISTE’s planned research areas include the consortium standards ecosystem, government roles in standardization, the relationship of open source and standards, the essential facilities doctrine and standards, local innovations within global tech platforms, measuring the deployment and impact of standards, and more. Our planned deliverables are various papers in our working paper series, several funded research projects at universities around the globe, and at least one major conference. We also expect to be able to announce details about a planned series of books.

GISTE performs and coordinates academic research. GISTE does not engage in lobbying or any type of policy advocacy.

GISTE embraces and abides by the principles articulated in Robin Feldman et al., Open Letter on Ethical Norms in Intellectual Property Scholarship, 29 Harvard Journal of Law & Technology 1-14 (2016).