SEP Essentials

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?

Title VI of the Proposal establishes the Center as an avenue for making (potentially global) FRAND determinations. As the Proposal recognizes, we currently have at least two different jurisdictions (the U.K. and China), each of which claim to have the authority to set global FRAND rates and determine world-wide FRAND licenses. You have to ask yourself, do we need yet another forum that purports to have the authority to set global FRAND rates. The answer is yes, maybe, in so

We are back with Andrew Myles. Please see my Interview with Andrew Myles – Part 1 for information about Andrew and his background. My first set of questions relates to how things have changed over the time you have been involved in standard development. Let’s start with participation in the meetings. What have you seen change over time related to who participates in standards development? One thing that has really changed in the 802.11 development effort is that some compa