In the 1990s, the Global System for Mobile (GSM) communications standard became ubiquitous after the EU passed a legislation in 1987 to mandate the standard throughout Europe. Initially, The developers of GSM technology were the sole manufacturers and this elite group, including Siemens, Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia, chose not to license the GSM technology to anyone outside this exclusive group. Instead, they cross-licensed their patent portfolios to each other.