Ky P Ewing, Jr
, of counsel with Vinson & Elkins, Washington DC, acted as US counsel to the 3G Patent Platform Partnership of 19 mobile telecommunications companies. Below he explains the technological background and competition issues raised by the Platform.
On November 11-12, 2002, the European Commission and the US Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division issued antitrust ‘clearances’ of the 3G Patent Platform, following the Japan Fair Trade Commission’s earlier approval. The Patent Platform was developed after years of effort by all segments of the mobile telephony industry (equipment makers, system operators and peripherals producers, in parallel to the industry’s work in setting the third generation technical standards through the International Telecommunications Union). Learning from the mistakes and history of the second generation of mobile telephony, the 3G Patent Platform is designed to solve some of the tough patent licensing problems presented by multiple companies
