Brussels, March 31st 2016 – The Fair Standards Alliance (FSA) announced today that Google has become its 19th member.
Launched in November 2015 and based in Europe, the Alliance seeks to promote the licensing of standards-essential patents (SEPs) on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.
“We are delighted in the vote of confidence that a company such as Google is showing in our growing coalition. FRAND licensing of SEPs is a critical part of ensuring that the innovation ecosystem for 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT) can flourish, and we relish the opportunity to work with Google to further our goals of fair and reasonable SEP licensing on a non-discriminatory basis”, said Robert Pocknell, Chairman of the FSA.
Allen Lo, Deputy General Counsel for Patents at Google, said: “Google has joined the FSA to support the leadership that it has demonstrated in showing the way to a fair and principled result.”
The FSA believes that the entire innovation ecosystem is threatened by unfair and unreasonable SEP licensing practices. Failure to honour the FRAND commitment that exists in most standardisation licensing creates barriers to market entry, threatens to stifle the full potential for economic growth across major industry sectors, and ultimately curbs consumer choice.
The FSA’s member companies, who hold more than 160,000 patents and spend more than 32 billion euros per year on R&D and innovation, include: AirTies, BMW, Cisco, Dell, Fairphone, HP, Intel, ip.access, Juniper Networks, Lenovo, Micromax, peiker acustic, Sierra Wireless, Telit, u-blox and Volkswagen.
For further information
FSA media contact: +32 2 536 86 72 or +44 7534950988; [email protected]
About FSA
The Fair Standards Alliance is a not for profit association whose goal is to promote globally, but primarily in the European Union and its Member States, a number of key principles concerning the licensing of standards-essential patents (SEPs) that are subject to a voluntary commitment to provide licenses on Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) terms.
Download the PDF here.