India's First Judgement On Standard Essential Patents

Introduction

Our lives, nowadays, seem to revolve around devices; technological devices like computers, cell phones, more importantly smartphones using 3G/4G networks, and even the earphones and headphones and other music players through which we listen to music.

For the proper functioning of the devices, they have to comply with certain standard. These standards may include hundreds and thousands of components, where these different components may be covered by different patents where the individual components are combined in a way that they work together to achieve functionality and a certain technical standard. Any patent that covers an essential part of any technology and which becomes imperative for the growth of that technology in the same field is a Standard Essential Patent (SEP). It is very difficult to determine which patent is essential to achieve that particular technical standard. If the SEP's are to be used, a license is required for their use