Executive Summary

The interrelation of standards and patents is a very complex area. Basically, complexity
arises from the difference in ownership. Standards are designed for everyone and cannot be
owned. Patents on the other hand, are possessions of individuals or companies, and other
enterprises.
The number of standards is constantly increasing, and with it also, the number of standardessential patents. On one hand, standardization has a potential benefit for all market players
by bringing together individual, diverse, competing interests and innovations in the process of
development of a standard; but on the other hand, there are challenges arising from the
importance of SEPs and widespread usage in many technology areas, which consequently
gives rise to the owners market power.
Both patents and standards have the aim to initiate and support technological innovation and
progress. However, putting these two mechanisms together might cause difficulties and
disagreements. The mechanism of standardization creates commonalities and increases the
competition level by giving equal access to innovative solutions to all stakeholders.
Contrarily, the patent mechanism is based on creation of temporary monopolies arising from
the intellectual property rights of the holders to exclude others from using their protected
technologies.
As a resulting conclusion and suggestions from the paper, it is highlighted that: would be
logical and optimal for holders of standard-essential patents to be willing to give royalty-free
licenses. By doing so, their patented invention is included in a standard, which in itself, is an
important benefit: it positions the patent holder in the center of the standard, makes the
patent holder more influential in the field of the particular standard.
Furthermore, costly and ineffective lawsuits can be avoided, so more resources can be spent
on other strategic components (R&D, marketing, portfolio investments, etc.) which would in
future improve the financial and market position of a company.

Contents
Abbreviations.......................................................................................................................... 4
List of Figures......................................................................................................................... 4
List of Tables........................................................................................................................... 4
1.

Introduction........................................................................................................... 5

2.

Standard Setting and Standard-Essential Patents................................................6

2.1

Standard-Setting Entities, Regulations, and Challenges.......................................9

2.2

Legal Difficulties and Litigation of Standard-Essential Patents............................13

3.

Conclusion.......................................................................................................... 16

Abbreviations
IPR

Intellectual Property Rights

SDO

Standard-Developing Organization

SSO

Standard-Setting Organization

ISO

International Organization for Standardization

ITU

International Telecommunication Union

CEN

European Committee for Standardization

CENELEC European Committee for Electro-technical Standardization

ETSI

European Telecommunications Standards Institute

F(RAND)

Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory

LTE

Long Term Evolution

LAN/PAN BAN networks, wired and wireless

AV

Audio/Video systems, coding and compression, broadcasting, home systems,

home entertainment

IT

Information technology and Internet

ICT

Information and Communications Technology

CJEU

Court of Justice of the European Union

List of Figures
Figure 1: Structure of key issues.............................................................................................5
Figure 2: Standard-essential patents by technology area.......................................................8
Figure 3: Litigation of SEPs compared to baseline patents (i.e. non-SEPs)..........................13

List of Tables
Table 1: Top 5 technical fields by the number of patent applications.......................................7
Table 2: Top 5 applicants by the number of patent applications.............................................7
Table 3: Different standards-setting entities and their resulting standards.............................11
Table 4: Litigation cases by technology area.........................................................................14