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10 October 2017Patents

Technology leaders to create SEP code of conduct

Representatives from technology companies including Nokia, Ericsson and Orange have formed a committee aiming to establish an industry-wide code on best practice for licensing standard-essential patents (SEPs).

Proposals to create the code were backed during a workshop set up by the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) last week.

An initial meeting, on October 6, was held in Paris at the Association Française de Normalisation (the French National Organisation for Standardisation), which is supporting the initiative alongside its German counterpart the Deutsches Institut für Normung (German Institute for Standardisation).

Once completed, the code will establish best practice for SEP licensing arrangements. It is hoped technology contributors and users will be able to use the code to find fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) outcomes to licensing negotiations and avoid litigation.

According to CENELEC, the code will reflect and balance the needs of the 5G/internet of things (IoT) technology user communities and the 5G/IoT technology provider communities and so ensure fair and efficient licensing.

It will also “consider ways to improve and ideally streamline or make the licensing process more systematic”.

Kerry Miller, head of IP regulatory affairs at Nokia and chair of the workshop, said: “It is pleasing that despite the contentious nature of this debate, CEN and CENELEC managed to bring so many important stakeholders around the table to discuss the development of an industry code of conduct.

“We have already heard from a number of other technology firms that they are considering joining the process. Our hope is that more standards implementers will join the workshop and our effort to safeguard good-faith licensing negotiations.”

The project is being backed by IP Europe, an organisation that helps support European companies and research institutes by advocating strong patent protection for innovators and supporting FRAND policies.

Francisco Mingorance, executive secretary of IP Europe, added: “We are committed to continuing this work with the involvement of many different stakeholders in order to come to a balanced result.

“Only this will provide the continued incentives for the open standards development that has driven the growth of interoperability and the global smartphone market—and on which many manufacturers around the world rely.”

The code of conduct is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2018.

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