EU standards bodies publish IoT and 5G FRAND principles
EU standards-setting organisations have today published six principles on the licensing of standard-essential patents (SEPs) in the realm of 5G and the internet of things (IoT).
IP Europe, an alliance of innovation-intensive companies, shared the draft agreement ahead of World Standards Day on October 14.
Initial proposals to create the principles were backed during a workshop set up by the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) in October 2017.
The plan to develop an industry-wide code on best practice stemmed from the need for universally-applicable principles that reflect and balance the needs of 5G and IoT technology providers with those of IoT users.
Today, CEN and CENELEC released six principles that will, according to IP Europe, allow those in the 5G and the IoT licensing environments to replicate the benefits that SEPs have brought to the smartphone industry.
Kerry Miller, chairman of the CEN-CENELEC workshop agreement group, explained: “It is our initial effort to capture the licensing principles that have enabled the rapid development and deployment of 2G, 3G and 4G standardised mobile communication technologies in the smartphone and ICT sector.”
The six principles, which contain guidance for conducting FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory) licensing negotiations, can be found here.
IP Europe said that the draft CEN-CENELEC workshop agreement (titled “Principles and guidance for licensing SEPs in 5G and the IoT, including the Industrial Internet”) is a “vital step” in ensuring that the EU maximises its share of the $11.1 trillion value predicted to be generated by the IoT by 2025.
A public comment period will now be open for 60 days, to allow feedback on the principles and guidance that the workshop has today released.
Miller said: “We hope these principles and guidance will also benefit the work of the European Commission’s expert group on SEP licensing as they examine how to ensure an efficient marketplace for new entrants.”
However, the principles have already been criticised by trade body The App Association as being little more than “an endorsement of abusive licensing practices against downstream innovators”.
Morgan Reed, executive director of The App Association, said: “If licensors and licensees follow the guidance of this agreement, then Europe will see a continuation of overpayments and other non-FRAND licensing practices that have plagued SEP licensing for many years.”
IP Europe and The App Association have long clashed over the licensing of SEPs.
Although both organisations ended up backing the European Commission’s guidance on the topic in 2017, they engaged in a bitter row in the lead up to its release.
The App Association was worried that the Commission could extend use-based pricing to the IoT, which the association claimed would discriminate against technology firms and developers.
Meanwhile, IP Europe said that use-based fees are very reasonable and that they are necessary to ensure the stability of shared open connectivity standards.
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