Indeed; in order for any standard like this (or UPC, EAN, etc) to gain widespread usage as opposed to very narrow, single-organization usage, it has to be EASY to adopt.

This means that while the standard's official documentation might require that it be purchased (this is the case with QR), or while software which interacts with it might not be free/gratis, it must not carry with it patent or licensing encumberances. While ISO allows "reasonable and non-discriminatory" patents/licenses to be enforced against technologies which are ISO standards, something like a barcode format is difficult to justify licensing restrictions in almost all cases.

you can still patent applications of it.