proprietary companies are using FRAND as a last-ditch attempt to subvert open standards by allowing encumbered technologies to be included. That is, the standards may be “open”, but they certainly aren’t open, since you will need a licence from companies to use them. The theory is that FRAND makes this all sweetness and light, but current arguments prove exactly the contrary: what is “fair” and “reasonable” is completely undefined, and therefore inevitably subjective. There’s only one way for such subjective issues to be resolved, and that’s in the courts. The FRAND lobby seems to have been busy in Europe.