International Standards primarily serve to:

• A. Primary to enhance trade - they give us a common language
• B. To restrict trade
• C. To patent technology
• D. To standardize alarm speeds

Answer: (C)

International standards are about creating a shared set of terms and technical specifications that products, services, and processes must meet. When everyone uses the same language and agreed-upon requirements, designs from different countries can fit together, testing is consistent, and regulators and consumers can trust performance and safety. The main goal is to remove barriers to trade and ensure interoperability across markets, not to grant patents or limit trade.

Patents concern rights granted to inventors for their creations, and while standards may reference patented technologies or require licensing in some cases, that isn’t the purpose of standardization itself. Standards are designed to harmonize how things are built and tested, not to patent technology. The idea of standardizing “alarm speeds” is too narrow; standards cover a broad range of attributes, from safety to compatibility to performance, across many industries.