A de jure standard is a technology, method or product that has been officially endorsed for a given application.
De jure, from Medieval Latin, means from law. The term refers not only to legally protected or enforced standards but also to those that have been endorsed by an official standards organization, such as ANSI (American National Standards Institute) or IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force).
Examples of de jure standards include:
ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange), the most common format for text files in computers and on the Internet.
SCSI (Small Computer System Interface), a set of ANSI standard electronic interfaces that allow personal computers to communicate with peripheral hardware.
TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is the IETF-endorsed standard communication language or protocol of the Internet.
De jure standards contrast with de facto standards, which gain prominence through widespread use rather than official endorsement.