SEP Essentials

2026 already has been a whirlwind of global activity, including in the world of standards and standard essential patents (SEPs).  The United States has announced its intent “to win the global race for 6G” and obtain “scientific and technological global dominance” ( Global Dominance – The U.S.A.’s Views on Standards and SEPs ). China has further cemented its status as the only country in the world with a well-formulated and consistent strategy and vision around standards and S

I wanted to title this series of posts “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” in a homage to the spaghetti Western’s conception of the American West. However, these categories do not line up so clearly with the current state of the world’s most used SEP litigation jurisdictions.  Instead, I titled this series of posts “The Coherent, the Meh and the Left Behind.” These are more useful categories to describe the SEP policies of the most used—and top emerging—SEP litigation jurisdict

Way back in the early days of this blog, I wrote an article about the EU’s complaint in the World Trade Organization (“WTO”) against China ( First Pop Quiz Revisited - The EU Complaint Against China ).  The EU complaint alleged that China violated the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights “TRIPS” agreement primarily through Chinese courts’ use of anti-suit injunctions.  I wanted to give an update on that case:  it appears that the EU has lost. Although a publi

In Andrew Myles’ guest post ( Convergence and Competition - A Tale of Two Standards Part 4 - Guest Post by Andrew Myles ), he discussed the six companies that have failed to provide a formal response to ISO’s request to confirm whether or not they will grant a FRAND license for their Wi-Fi 6 SEPs.  It’s time to take a deeper dive into some of those six companies.  To remind you, those six companies are: ·        Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (“Huawei,” based out of China), · 

Several of my recent posts have focused on the third prong of standard and SEP analysis: the competition law aspects (see e.g. Back to Basics – An Overview of Competition Law, Standard Development and Standard Setting ).  The Chinese government also has been contemplating how SEP related issues should be addressed under the competition laws and has just released new Anti-Monopoly Guidelines for Standard Essential Patents ( Notice of the State Administration for Market Regulat

There was a point to the first pop quiz. Last year, the European Union filed a complaint in the World Trade Organization against China related to SEP litigation. In its First Written Submission (filed on June 8, 2023), the EU argues that the Chinese courts’ global FRAND setting and anti-suit injunctions violate the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights “TRIPS” agreement. [1] The EU brief argues that the Chinese courts’ decisions to set global FRAND rates and