Patent wars on 5G: EU Commission buries reform of standard-essential patents

The EU Commission is abandoning its attempt to pacify the patent disputes surrounding future technologies such as 5G. With its work program for the new legislative period, the Commission under Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) is withdrawing its regulation proposed in 2023. Industry representatives are appalled.

In the mobile communications sector in particular, a patent war over 5G, for example, has been waged for many years, which has spilled over into the automotive industry in particular. The Commission wanted to prevent many disputes that have arisen with the licensing system for standard essential patents (SEP) with its initiative.

No agreement in sight

According to the Commission, an agreement with the EU Parliament and the Council of Ministers is not foreseeable. It now wants to examine whether it should bring another draft into play or whether a completely new approach should be chosen.

SEPs play a particularly important role for mobile technologies, data formats such as JPEG and the interoperability of audio and video applications. The Commission wanted to resolve the problems that often arise when licensing usage rights for such technologies and have led to outright patent wars.

For example, the Commission wanted to set up an SEP register. Key patents entered in it would be checked to see whether they are really decisive for a standard. The Commission also wanted to introduce fixed fee rates and a dispute resolution mechanism.

The Fair Standards Alliance is appalled

The Fair Standards Alliance, which represents companies from the automotive industry as well as Amazon, Apple and Google, among others, is now dismayed by the Commission's relenting: this unexpected step contradicts the Commission's stated goals of strengthening the competitiveness of European industries.

By withdrawing the SEP regulation, European companies are being deprived of "the chance of fair access to important infrastructure such as 5G", criticizes the Fair Standards Alliance. It would also deepen Europe's strategic dependencies. The Commission is ignoring "years of demands for legal and business certainty as well as uniform and transparent regulations across Europe".

However, there was also a lot of headwind for the draft: in 2023, around 15 co-developers of global standards in the areas of audio and video coding (MP3 and VVC), digital radio, Wi-Fi, mobile communications and DVB mobilized against the proposal. According to them, the initiative "in no way reflects how the ecosystem of international standards actually works".

The European Patent Office was also up in arms against the Commission's plan, but a year later had spoken out in favor of a reform in principle.

(mho)