European Commission Reportedly Plans To Impose New SEP Licensing Framework

Next month, the European Commission is reportedly poised to announce a policy initiative that would establish a sweeping new framework for fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory (FRAND) licensing in the European Union (EU). As first revealed by Reuters, standard essential patent (SEP) owners would be required to use a new process for determining FRAND rates that is administered by the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) before filing litigation. The draft law would establish a SEP registry that patent owners must utilize in order to be entitled to royalties and damages and would require that "[i]ndependent evaluators" determine whether declared SEPs are actually essential to a given standard.