The European Commission’s proposal for a Regulation on Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) has been in the hands of the European Parliament and Council for almost six months. The two political institutions must agree on a text to facilitate SEP licensing by increasing transparency over SEPs, reducing information asymmetries between SEP licensors and implementers, and facilitating the agreement on Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) licenses. The debate in the legislative process is in full swing, not only because the issues at stake are highly contentious in terms of economic and strategic interests, but also due to the political uncertainties arising from the forthcoming European elections in June 2024.

Indeed, the Regulation would innovate the legal framework for licensing SEPs in Europe, which has so far relied on national patent laws and EU competition law, particularly on the Horizontal Cooperation Guidelines and the Huawei v ZTE abuse of dominance case law. If enacted, the Regulation would mandate the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) to maintain a register of declared SEPs. Furthermore, the EUIPO would administer non-binding procedures to assess the standard-essentiality of registered SEPs, establish global aggregate royalty rates for standards implementation, and determine actual FRAND royalties.

The economic and geographic reach of the Regulation cannot be underestimated: the new rules would likely impact far beyond Europe on standardization, patenting, technology transfer, and litigation activities due to the global nature of markets for standardized technologies.

While awaiting the Parliament’s first reading position, the event sets the stage for a lively policy discussion, both on the results of the European Commission’s public consultation and the future of the key European institutions active in the SEP field. It gives voice to critical institutional and industry stakeholders of ICT standardisation to share their views, concerns, and suggestions on the Regulation and its potential effects on the European economy and technological capacity.