Brussels, 28 February, 2024 –
The European Parliament has today voted in favour of a fairer, more transparent and more predictable licensing system for standard essential patents (SEPs).
With its vote supporting the European Commission’s proposal for SEP Regulation, the European Parliament recognises the need to remedy imbalance between SEP holders and licensees.
The proposed measures include a register of patents that patent holders claim to be essential to standards, a requirement to get some of them assessed as to whether they are indeed essential and specify the terms on which any patents would be licensed. A nine-month mediation would be an intermediate step before litigation can be initiated.
Reacting to the outcome of the plenary vote, Evelina Kurgonaite, Secretary General of Fair Standards Alliance, said:
“For companies in Europe – large and small – today’s vote demonstrates that the European Parliament is in favour of innovation for consumers and progress towards the reality of the Internet of Things. It also brings European companies one step closer to licensing standard essential technologies on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms – which is unfortunately a far cry from reality today.”
Following the European Parliament’s vote, the Fair Standards Alliance calls on Member States to swiftly adopt their general approach, so that inter-institutional negotiations can begin promptly to ensure fairness prevails in the EU.