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3 December 2015Patents

ETSI says IEEE's IPR policy is not compatible with its own

Standards-setting organisation the European Telecommunications Standard Institute (ETSI) has said that the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ (IEEE) intellectual property rights policy is incompatible with its own.

Dirk Weiler, chairman of the board of ETSI and head of standards management at telecommunications company Nokia, was speaking at the IBC Standards Patents & Competition: Law & Litigation 2015 conference held in London Tuesday, December 1.

WIPR did not attend the conference, but was given slides of Weiler's presentation by a delegate.

According to the IEEE, its "core purpose" is to foster technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity.

In February, the IEEE confirmed it had made a number of changes to its policy on licensing standard-essential patents (SEPs) on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.

Key changes covered limits to injunctions, an offer to license patents to all interested parties, and requirements that buyers of the SEPs operate under the IEEE’s rules.

Weiler stated that the changes meant that the IEEE’s policy was out of step with ETSI’s.

He noted that injunctions under the IEEE policy against infringing parties are “more or less impossible to trigger”. He was also critical of the requirement by the IEEE that commercial discussions between different entities concerning the licensing of SEPs must take place outside of ETSI.

Weiler was also c ritical of the IEEE’s introduction of the Smallest Saleable Unit (SSU) policy. Under the policy, when a SEP owner is determining a reasonable royalty rate in a licensing deal, it can include the contribution of the SSU to the overall device.

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