The term re-use (and its associated terminology) has several definitions in international legislations, norms and re-use practice, all embracing different contexts and not following a global standard for communication. The StEP Initiative discovered early on that mixed definitions of key terms can become barriers for solutions and create confusion among academia, government, industry and of course, consumers, thus hindering an efficient re-use market.

In its White Paper Towards Common Definitions in ReUse Task Force ReUse lays down a common understanding of key terms related to re-use, their definitions and concepts. It does not discuss existing definitions in depth, but creates one “dictionary” of key definitions in order to establish a global standard for communication. The White Paper was piblished in March 2009.