Intellectual Property Rights is a key consideration in today's standardisation world. Organisations seek to exercise their intellectual property rights in the standardisation committee meetings, and those who wish to implement standards need to do so with a clear view of the exposure to royalties and other such committments.

From its outset, DVB set out to 'take the bull by the horns' in ensuring that it had a clear IPR policy governing its members and any IPR patents they may have which become essential to the implementation of one of its specifications.

DVB's IPR Module is responsible for:

• making recommendations concerning the DVB's IPR policy
  
• overseeing the functioning of the IPR policy
  
• dealing with IPR related issues which come up from time to time in other areas of DVB's work
  
• making recommendations on anti-piracy policies

In addition to the chairman of the IPRM, the IPRM is greatly assisted by a DVB Legal Director, dealing with the legal affairs of the DVB Project in general, as well as the specifics of the functioning of the IPR Module.