"Open standards can improve interoperability, facilitate interactions ranging from information exchange to international trade, and foster market competition. Open standards systems offer a balance of private and public interests that can protect IP with fairness, disclosure policies, and reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing. […] While encouraging innovation, a properly structured public and private partnership can potentially balance the interests of patent holders which endeavor to exploit their patents, with those of producers which want to license and produce the goods covered by the standards at reasonable prices, and of the public which seeks the widest possible choice in the marketplace among interoperable products. […] We believe that patent owners should be provided the incentive to have their proprietary technologies included in the standard under fair and reasonable terms. Without the commercial return there is no incentive for investors to fund research and development into new technology. Therefore, the incentive to develop and use patented technologies in standards should not be undermined."
Source: http://www.keionline.org/blogs/2009/03/25/united-states-position-patents-standards/