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30 November 2015Patents

WIPR survey: Readers back calls for FRAND clarity

There must be a clearer meaning of “FRAND” in order to allow standards to foster innovation, WIPR readers have said.

Responding to WIPR’s most recent survey, 69% of readers said a clearer meaning needs to be set out.

Last week, we reported that companies including BMW and Cisco have helped to form a group called the Fair Standards Alliance (FSA) in order to promote FRAND licensing.

The group said that the term “FRAND”, which stands for fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory, must have a clearer meaning to allow standards to foster innovation.

Among the core beliefs of the group are that a FRAND licensing agreement should be transparent, that legal threats and injunction requests should be asserted only after other options have been exhausted, and that ‘patent tying’—where a licensor requests a royalty based on its complete patent portfolio rather than just relevant patents—should be ended.

Reacting to the group’s calls, one survey respondent said: “FRAND is an undefined term. It also has no legal definition, which makes it unsuitable for incorporation in a legal text.”

Another added that without clarity, “litigation is the only remaining option” and that litigation is usually too expensive and uncertain.

The FSA, based in Brussels, was launched on November 12. Other members include Dell and HP.

For this week’s survey we ask: “For the past year WIPR has reported on the industrial dispute between some European Patent Office staff and the office’s management. Are you concerned by the continuing dispute? Please explain the reasons for your answer in the comments.”

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