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Standard-Setting Organisations’ IPR Policies: Intellectual Property and Competition Issues

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This book offers a unique insight into the world of standard-setting organizations (SSOs)’ IPR policies and the role they play in balancing the interests of innovators and implementers, vis-à-vis the development of standards. Since the beginning of the 21st century, there have been quite a few questions asked of the SSOs as to the legality of their IPR policies and the enforceability of disclosure and licensing obligations enshrined therein. That, coupled with disagreements over the appropriate royalty rate and royalty base, has resulted in extensive litigation between innovators and implementers, especially across the Atlantic. The Book, in keeping the USA and EU as the two primary jurisdictions, offers a comprehensive analysis of the disclosure and licensing obligations under SSO IPR policies, with strong theoretical foundations justifying their imposition. More specifically, it offers a bird’s eye view of the various facets of disclosure and licensing, ranging from non-disclosure and transparency on one hand, to the determination of FRAND on the other.

While much has been said about the benefits arising out of collaborative standard-setting, disputes involving SEP licensing have not been limited to the courts, and have attracted a significant amount of scrutiny by competition/antitrust agencies. The Book provides an elaborate account of the anti-competitive concerns surrounding standard-setting, and further documents the role of courts and competition agencies in ensuring good faith licensing negotiations between the SEP holders and implementers. Despite largely focusing on SEP licensing disputes in the USA and EU, the Book also offers a dedicated chapter on standard-setting in the Indian context. The readers are presented with an in-depth discussion on the contrasting approaches adopted by the courts and the Competition Commission of India (CCI), in addressing disputes involving SEPs. The said discussion is supplemented by a careful analysis of the SEP licensing guidelines to have emerged out of other implementer-oriented economies like China and Japan. By doing so, the Book offers readers the opportunity to study and compare the SEP licensing framework in developed, as well as developing economies. SSO IPR policies play an integral role in the development of standards, and with technologies such as the Internet of Things and 5G knocking on the doors, the Book makes for a valuable study on the nuances of standard-setting through the lens of SSOs, and will find takers among a wide reader base of students, researchers, academics, law practitioners, corporates, and policy makers.

Author(s): Manveen Singh
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2022

Language: English
Pages: 226
City: Singapore

Foreword by C. Raj Kumar
Foreword by Eric Stasik
Preface
Acknowledgements
About this Book
Contents
About the Author
Abbreviations
1 Introduction
1.1 Background
1.2 Structure of the Chapters
2 Standards and Standard-Setting Organizations
2.1 Introduction
2.2 The Evolution of Standards
2.2.1 Historical Background
2.2.2 Types of Standards
2.2.3 Benefits of Standardization
2.3 Standard-Setting Organizations (SSOs)
2.3.1 The Evolution of SSOs
2.3.2 Structure and Legality
2.3.3 SSO IPR Policies
2.3.4 Enforceability of SSO IPR Policies
2.3.5 Accountability
2.4 The Standard-Setting Process
2.4.1 The IEEE Model
2.4.2 The ETSI Model
2.4.3 The TSDSI Model
2.5 Challenges Associated with Standard-Setting
2.5.1 Patent Hold-Up
2.5.2 Patent Hold-Out
2.5.3 Royalty Stacking
2.5.4 Patent Ambush
2.6 Conclusion
3 Disclosure Practices at SSOs
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Justification for Disclosure
3.3 Disclosure Practices at SSOs
3.3.1 Essentiality and the Timing of Disclosure
3.3.2 Over-Disclosure, Under-Disclosure and the Issue of Transparency
3.3.3 Specific and Blanket Disclosures
3.3.4 Non-disclosure Leading to Patent Ambush
3.4 How to Bring Transparency to Disclosure?
3.4.1 Essentiality and the Lack of Checks Thereof
3.4.2 Timing of Disclosure: Early Warning Versus Delayed Reliability
3.4.3 Increased Transparency and Updation of SSO Databases
3.4.4 Addressing Patent Ambush
3.5 Conclusion
4 Licensing of SEPs and the Determination of FRAND
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Historical Background to FRAND
4.3 Enforceability of FRAND
4.3.1 Is FRAND a Contract?
4.3.2 The Antitrust Argument for the Enforcement of FRAND
4.3.3 FRAND Under the Market Reliance Theory
4.4 FRAND in the Standard-Setting Context
4.4.1 FRAND as a Part of Licensing Obligations at SSOs
4.4.2 FRAND as a Part of Licensing Disputes
4.5 The Problem in Defining the Contours of FRAND
4.5.1 FRAND Under IEEE’S 2015 IPR Policy––How Reasonable?
4.5.2 Discerning FRAND Through a Judicial Lens
4.6 What is “Fair”, “Reasonable” and “Non-discriminatory” in FRAND?
4.6.1 Fair
4.6.2 Reasonable
4.6.3 Non-discriminatory
4.7 Implementation of FRAND
4.8 Conclusion
5 The Interplay Between Intellectual Property and Competition in Standard-Setting
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Anti-competitive Conduct in Standard-Setting
5.3 SSO IPR Policy Rules Affecting Anti-competitive Conduct
5.3.1 Frand Licensing Commitments
5.3.2 Duty to Negotiate in Good Faith
5.4 Seeking Injunctive Relief: Whether Anti-competitive?
5.4.1 The U.S. Approach: A Shift in Antitrust Policy
5.4.2 The European Approach
5.5 Availability of Injunctive Relief Under SSO IPR Policies
5.5.1 SSO IPR Policies and Antitrust
5.5.2 Recommendations to SSOs
5.6 Anti-suit Injunctions
5.6.1 Anti-suit Injunctions in the U.S.
5.6.2 Anti-suit Injunctions in the EU
5.7 Conclusion
6 Licensing of SEPs in an Implementer-Oriented Economy: Challenges from an Indian Perspective
6.1 Introduction
6.2 SSO Framework in India
6.3 Judicial Determination of SEP Disputes
6.3.1 Courts’ Analysis of FRAND
6.3.2 Observations
6.4 SEP Licensing and Anti-competitive Conduct
6.4.1 Abuse of Dominance Complaints Before the CCI
6.4.2 Questions on the Jurisdiction of CCI
6.4.3 Observations
6.5 Right to an Injunction: Whether Anti-competitive?
6.5.1 Injunctive Relief in SEP Cases
6.5.2 Observations
6.6 SEP Licensing Guidelines in Other Implementer-Oriented Economies
6.6.1 Guangdong Guidelines (China)
6.6.2 Japan Patent Office Guide (Japan)
6.6.3 Observations
6.7 Conclusion
7 Conclusion
References