A patent for an invention that must be used to comply with a technical standard. Standards organizations often require members to disclose patents and grant licenses to all members during the development of a proposed industry standard. Failure to get licenses to all patents that are essential to complying with a standard may subject members adopting the standard to patent lawsuits. This happened with the lawsuit between Samsung and Apple as patented technologies are often licensed to competitors so the devices can communicate as part of an industry standard for wireless networks.