SEP Essentials

This is my second post in response to the Department of Commerce of the United States government in conjunction with the U.S. National Institute of Standard and Technology (“NIST”) request for stakeholders and the public to provide input into Implementation of the United States Government National Standards Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technology. [1] This post focuses on when the government should intervene to foster standards development and what other support the g

The Department of Commerce of the United States government in conjunction with the U.S. National Institute of Standard and Technology (“NIST”) has asked stakeholders and the public to provide input into Implementation of the United States Government National Standards Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technology. They have provided a long list of complex questions and a very short time frame for comments. You can find the notice here: https://www.federalregister.gov/docume

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

When I arrived in New Zealand, I needed a phone that had a New Zealand phone number. I could have just bought a new SIM card and put it into my US phone. That is what my daughter did. Like most teenagers these days, she keeps in touch with her friends via Insta, Snap, etc. rather than by dialing or texting a telephone number. So, she was ok with having only a single phone in which she can use a New Zealand phone number when she is in NZ (via her NZ phone number SIM card)

Here are the answers to the quiz. The first set of cases was the dispute between Microsoft and Motorola, the second the IPCom litigation with Lenovo and the third the Conversant/Huawei dispute. The jurisdictions and why they are outliers are as follows. Jurisdiction 1 – the United States . Patent damages in the United States, including for SEPs, usually are much higher than anywhere else in the world. The US is also a very large market for consumer based standardized prod

Historically, when licensing negotiations fail, large SEP holders file patent infringement lawsuits in multiple jurisdictions against a single implementer. Sometimes implementers file breach of contract (for breach of the FRAND commitment) or declaratory judgement actions against SEP holders when negotiations break down. Here is the story of three such disputes. Each of the jurisdictions listed below is an outlier in its own way. Can you name each of the jurisdictions?