This piece was originally posted at the Disruptive Competition Project. “Intellectual property,” as a term, is a problem. It groups together areas of law that, while they may share some things, are fundamentally disalike. Copyright law has compulsory licenses and an independent creation defense; patent law has neither. Trademarks aren’t duration limited; copyrights and patents…
Tag Archive for standard essential patents
Widespread Support for IEEE 2015 Patent Policy
by Josh Landau •
In 2015, the IEEE made changes to its Patent Policy for standard-essential patents (SEPs). Among other things, that policy strongly disfavored seeking injunctive relief for SEPs because injunctive relief permits using the threat of enjoining an entire product to extract a royalty that covers more than the value contributed by the patent. The policy also…
Fintiv Denials Playing a Role in Huawei Assertion Campaign
by Josh Landau •
Whenever we discuss the U.S. patent system, it’s critical to recall that while these patents are U.S. patents, anyone in the world can obtain one. And they do. In fact, in FY2020, of the 399,055 patents issued by the USPTO, 210,695—more than half—were obtained by residents of foreign countries. Any changes that are made to…
Unwired Planet, International Chaos
by Josh Landau •
Late last August, the UK Supreme Court issued a ruling in Unwired Planet permitting UK courts to assert jurisdiction over worldwide rate-setting in standard-essential patent (SEP) disputes. I predicted that this would lead to widespread chaos, with companies picking different jurisdictions and attempting to obtain a better rate in one forum than the other. I…
Guest Post: FRAND, RAND, & the Problem at Hand: Increasing Certainty in Infringement Damages for Standard-Essential Patents
by patentprogress.org •
This article was written by guest author Sam Howard, a 3L at Boston University School of Law and the winner of the 2019-2020 Patent Progress Writing Competition. The article is a shortened version of his full contest entry, which will be published in the Boston University Journal of Science and Technology Law in 2021, and…
Unwired Planet Decision May Lead To Crossed Wires On SEP Royalties
by Josh Landau •
Last week, the UK Supreme Court ruled that it was legally permissible for UK courts to set worldwide license rates for patents that are subject to fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory license (FRAND) obligations. The decision is likely to have worldwide ramifications—and create worldwide chaos in SEP licensing.
U.S. Effort to Create 5G Huawei Alternative Potentially Vulnerable to SEP Patent Litigation
by Josh Landau •
Today’s Wall Street Journal reports on a White House plan to coordinate the development of 5G systems by American companies. The effort is intended to provide a domestic alternative to Huawei for 5G infrastructure hardware. But if the FTC loses in an appeal at the 9th Circuit this month, that White House plan might run…
USPTO, DoJ, and NIST Issue FRAND/SEP Policy Statement
by Josh Landau •
Last week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, U.S. Department of Justice, and National Institute of Standards and Technology issued a joint statement on standard-essential patents (SEPs). The statement clarifies the agencies’ position on an earlier 2013 statement made by USPTO and DoJ while completing the process of formally withdrawing from that statement. In essence,…
Guest Post: Is Big Tech FRANDly to Competition?
by Charles Duan •
Charles Duan is the Director of Technology and Innovation Policy at the R Street Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, D.C. This post is cross-posted at the Disruptive Competition Project. On Tuesday, Apple released a new policy on its website relating to the obscure topic of “FRAND” licensing of patents. That’s an…
Voting Machines, Patents, and National Security
by Josh Landau •
When standard-essential patents (SEPs) are in the news, it’s usually in the context of cellular or wireless networking standards. Maybe you’ve thought about how standards govern other things, ranging from audio-visual encoding standards like MP3 to threads on fire hydrants. But what you probably don’t think about are voting machine standards.