Complications and Quandaries in the ICT Sector

Complications and Quandaries in the ICT Sector
Author: Ashish Bharadwaj
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2017-10-27
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9811060118

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. With technology standards becoming increasingly common, particularly in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector, the complexities and contradictions at the interface of intellectual property law and competition law have emerged strongly. This book talks about how the regulatory agencies and courts in the United States, European Union and India are dealing with the rising allegations of anti-competitive behaviour by standard essential patent (SEP) holders. It also discusses the role of standards setting organizations / standards developing organizations (SSO/SDO) and the various players involved in implementing the standards that influence practices and internal dynamics in the ICT sector. This book includes discussions on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) licensing terms and the complexities that arise when both licensors and licensees of SEPs differ on what they mean by “fair”, “reasonable” and “non-discriminatory” terms. It also addresses topics such as the appropriate royalty base, calculation of FRAND rates and concerns related to FRAND commitments and the role of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in collaborative standard setting process. This book provides a wide range of valuable information and is a useful tool for graduate students, academics and researchers.

Patent Remedies and Complex Products

Patent Remedies and Complex Products
Author: C. Bradford Biddle
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 379
Release: 2019-06-27
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1108426751

Through a collaboration among twenty legal scholars from North America, Europe and Asia, this book presents an international consensus on the use of patent remedies for complex products such as smartphones, computer networks, and the Internet of Things. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Injunctive Relief and Standard Essential Patents. An Indian Perspective

Injunctive Relief and Standard Essential Patents. An Indian Perspective
Author: Devank Kumar Singh
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
Total Pages: 32
Release: 2023-07-26
Genre: Law
ISBN: 3346912388

Master's Thesis from the year 2020 in the subject Law - Media, Multimedia Law, Copyright, grade: 10/10, , course: LL.M. in Intellectual Property and Technology Laws, language: English, abstract: This dissertation explores the intricate world of Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) and their effects on the technology sector, with a particular emphasis on the Indian legal system. Recent conflicts have made SEPs, which include patents essential to industry-adopted technical standards, a significant component of the technology sector. Standardization has several advantages, including interoperability and cost savings, but it also carries the possibility of the "hold-up" issue. In this situation, SEP holders might demand outrageous royalties from implementers by abusing their influence in standard development. Standard Setting Organizations (SSOs) mandate that SEP owners license their patents under FRAND conditions in order to remedy this problem. However, the lack of defined legislation governing SEPs creates a specialized area where de-facto judicial orders and de-jure SSO norms have a substantial impact on establishing ordinary practice. The dissertation is divided into four sections to fully examine the subject. The obligations of SEP holders and the viability of FRAND conditions are examined in Part I. Part II explores the mechanisms of patent hold-up and hold-out while attempting to be fair. In order to unify methods worldwide, Part III performs a comparative review of injunctive relief rights and liabilities in the USA, the EU, and India. Last but not least, Part IV suggests the best course of action for India's injunctive relief on SEPs, taking into account the country's expanding economy and reliance on technology imports. The ultimate objective is to strike a balance that encourages fair access to standard technology, benefits Indian consumers and producers, and reduces the possibility of monopolistic tendencies. This study intends to provide the Indian regime with useful modifications based on the lessons learned from the experiences of other jurisdictions in order to promote a just and vibrant innovation sector there.

Multi-dimensional Approaches Towards New Technology

Multi-dimensional Approaches Towards New Technology
Author: Ashish Bharadwaj
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2018-07-23
Genre: Law
ISBN: 981131232X

This open access edited book captures the complexities and conflicts arising at the interface of intellectual property rights (IPR) and competition law. To do so, it discusses four specific themes: (a) policies governing functioning of standard setting organizations (SSOs), transparency and incentivising future innovation; (b) issue of royalties for standard essential patents (SEPs) and related disputes; (c) due process principles, procedural fairness and best practices in competition law; and (d) coherence of patent policies and consonance with competition law to support innovation in new technologies. Many countries have formulated policies and re-oriented their economies to foster technological innovation as it is seen as a major source of economic growth. At the same time, there have been tensions between patent laws and competition laws, despite the fact that both are intended to enhance consumer welfare. In this regard, licensing of SEPs has been debated extensively, although in most instances, innovators and implementers successfully negotiate licensing of SEPs. However, there have been instances where disagreements on royalty base and royalty rates, terms of licensing, bundling of patents in licenses, pooling of licenses have arisen, and this has resulted in a surge of litigation in various jurisdictions and also drawn the attention of competition/anti-trust regulators. Further, a lingering lack of consensus among scholars, industry experts and regulators regarding solutions and techniques that are apposite in these matters across jurisdictions has added to the confusion. This book looks at the processes adopted by the competition/anti-trust regulators to apply the principles of due process and procedural fairness in investigating abuse of dominance cases against innovators.

Patent Challenges for Standard-Setting in the Global Economy

Patent Challenges for Standard-Setting in the Global Economy
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 181
Release: 2013-10-07
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0309293154

Patent Challenges for Standard-Setting in the Global Economy: Lessons from Information and Communication Technology examines how leading national and multinational standard-setting organizations (SSOs) address patent disclosures, licensing terms, transfers of patent ownership, and other issues that arise in connection with developing technical standards for consumer and other microelectronic products, associated software and components, and communications networks including the Internet. Attempting to balance the interests of patent holders, other participants in standard-setting, standards implementers, and consumers, the report calls on SSOs to develop more explicit policies to avoid patent holdup and royalty-stacking, ensure that licensing commitments carry over to new owners of the patents incorporated in standards, and limit injunctions for infringement of patents with those licensing commitments. The report recommends government measures to increase the transparency of patent ownership and use of standards information to improve patent quality and to reduce conflicts of laws across countries.

Patent Failure

Patent Failure
Author: James Bessen
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2009-08-03
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1400828694

In recent years, business leaders, policymakers, and inventors have complained to the media and to Congress that today's patent system stifles innovation instead of fostering it. But like the infamous patent on the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, much of the cited evidence about the patent system is pure anecdote--making realistic policy formation difficult. Is the patent system fundamentally broken, or can it be fixed with a few modest reforms? Moving beyond rhetoric, Patent Failure provides the first authoritative and comprehensive look at the economic performance of patents in forty years. James Bessen and Michael Meurer ask whether patents work well as property rights, and, if not, what institutional and legal reforms are necessary to make the patent system more effective. Patent Failure presents a wide range of empirical evidence from history, law, and economics. The book's findings are stark and conclusive. While patents do provide incentives to invest in research, development, and commercialization, for most businesses today, patents fail to provide predictable property rights. Instead, they produce costly disputes and excessive litigation that outweigh positive incentives. Only in some sectors, such as the pharmaceutical industry, do patents act as advertised, with their benefits outweighing the related costs. By showing how the patent system has fallen short in providing predictable legal boundaries, Patent Failure serves as a call for change in institutions and laws. There are no simple solutions, but Bessen and Meurer's reform proposals need to be heard. The health and competitiveness of the nation's economy depend on it.

The Patent Crisis and How the Courts Can Solve It

The Patent Crisis and How the Courts Can Solve It
Author: Dan L. Burk
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
Total Pages: 442
Release: 2010-10-19
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1459605586

Patent law is crucial to encourage technological innovation. But as the patent system currently stands, diverse industries from pharmaceuticals to software to semiconductors are all governed by the same rules even though they innovate very differently. The result is a crisis in the patent system, where patents calibrated to the needs of prescrip...

Innovation and Its Discontents

Innovation and Its Discontents
Author: Adam B. Jaffe
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2011-05-27
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1400837340

The United States patent system has become sand rather than lubricant in the wheels of American progress. Such is the premise behind this provocative and timely book by two of the nation's leading experts on patents and economic innovation. Innovation and Its Discontents tells the story of how recent changes in patenting--an institutional process that was created to nurture innovation--have wreaked havoc on innovators, businesses, and economic productivity. Jaffe and Lerner, who have spent the past two decades studying the patent system, show how legal changes initiated in the 1980s converted the system from a stimulator of innovation to a creator of litigation and uncertainty that threatens the innovation process itself. In one telling vignette, Jaffe and Lerner cite a patent litigation campaign brought by a a semi-conductor chip designer that claims control of an entire category of computer memory chips. The firm's claims are based on a modest 15-year old invention, whose scope and influenced were broadened by secretly manipulating an industry-wide cooperative standard-setting body. Such cases are largely the result of two changes in the patent climate, Jaffe and Lerner contend. First, new laws have made it easier for businesses and inventors to secure patents on products of all kinds, and second, the laws have tilted the table to favor patent holders, no matter how tenuous their claims. After analyzing the economic incentives created by the current policies, Jaffe and Lerner suggest a three-pronged solution for restoring the patent system: create incentives to motivate parties who have information about the novelty of a patent; provide multiple levels of patent review; and replace juries with judges and special masters to preside over certain aspects of infringement cases. Well-argued and engagingly written, Innovation and Its Discontents offers a fresh approach for enhancing both the nation's creativity and its economic growth.

SEPs, SSOs and FRAND

SEPs, SSOs and FRAND
Author: Kung-Chung Liu
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2019-12-05
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1000760073

This book is a very useful reference guide on how de jure and de facto standards are being developed and how these standards compete against each other. The book also looks at how FRAND commitments are being determined across countries, how these disputes have played out, especially in Asia, and how they can be better dealt with in future globally. The book gives a broad overview of the business model of dominant SEP patentees and analyzes some standards for FRAND licensing of SEPs which are converging in major Asian jurisdictions. It highlights the need for ex ante regulation in the FRAND licensing of SEPs and suggests how we can reconcile conflicts which may arise from different legal standards. This book provides detailed and comprehensive analysis of recent SEP cases with an emphasis on Asia and will interest anyone who wishes to have more insight into the legal, policy, industrial and economic implications of such issues.