Essential Patents

An Unreasonable Royalty Rate is No Gaming Matter

by Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP on 5/23/2013

The Honorable Judge James L. Robart recently took on the challenging task of determining a reasonable and non-discriminatory (“RAND”) royalty rate for Motorola’s standards-essential patents (“SEP”). Microsoft Corp. v....more

Proposed Remedies in the Midst of the Patent Wars: EU and US Antitrust Watchdogs Push to Strengthen FRAND in Standard Setting

by McDermott Will & Emery on 11/20/2012

Chief Economists from the US Federal Trade Commission, the US Department of Justice and the EU Directorate General for Competition, have agreed on a set of four, non-binding suggestions that should—if followed by...more

FRAND and Injunctive Relief: Exploring a Standard-Essential Patent Owner’s Right to Injunctive Relief

by McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP on 8/20/2012

Introduction - Often, an industry-adopted technical standard includes technology covered by patents, and the owners of these patents agree to license the patents on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms as...more

FRAND Defence in German Courts: Remedy Against Standard-Essential Patents?

by McDermott Will & Emery on 6/21/2012

Standard setting is considered an inevitable process nowadays. It enables the interoperability of products and services from different vendors. The telecommunication sector, for example, is heavily penetrated by standards,...more

Smartphone Wars Arms Race - FRAND Limitations on Patent Deployment

by Jonathan Radcliffe on 10/1/2011

The patent wars raging in the global technology sector show no signs of a ceasefire. If anything, the tempo is increasing. The sector is currently seeing a wave of acquisitions of massive multi-billion dollar patent...more

Patents & Standardisation: Are SSO-IPR policies and effective remedy to the hold-up problem?

by Charlotte de Boer on 1/4/2010

Patents & Standardisation: Are SSO IPR-Policies and effective remedy to the hold-up problem? Keywords: Standard setting and patents, Standard setting organizations, hold-up problem, patent ambush, FRAND-licensing,...more

Patents and Standardisation: Are SSO-IPR policies an effective remedy to the hold-up problem?

by Wim Maas on 1/4/2010

Patents and Standardisation: Are SSO-IPR policies an effective remedy to the hold-up problem? Keywords: standard setting and patents, standard setting organisations, patent ambush, hold-up problem, FRAND license,...more

Third Circuit Finds False FRAND Commitments Actionable Under the Antitrust Laws

by Morrison & Foerster LLP on 9/12/2007

Last week, the Third Circuit held that in a consensus-oriented private standard setting environment, a patent holder’s intentionally false promise to license essential proprietary technology on fair, reasonable and...more