What is needed to make the standard essential patent system as transparent and understandable as possible for all market participants? What tools will ensure equal access to global technology standards for small and medium-sized businesses without stifling innovation? What will help reduce legal uncertainty and minimize abuse of parallel litigation proceedings in different countries?

 

These and other issues were discussed during the Global Symposium on Standard Essential Patents (SEPs). The event took place at the headquarters of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva.

 

The Symposium brought together leading players in the innovation ecosystem – from technology corporations to national IP offices and judicial authorities – in order to develop joint approaches to addressing key challenges in the sphere of SEPs.

 

Ukrainian National Office for Intellectual Property and Innovations (UANIPIO/IP Office) was represented on symposium by:

 

• Mykola Pototskyi, Deputy Director;

 

• Andrii Sukhovii, Head of Invention, Utility models and Semiconductor Product Layouts Applications Examinations Division, Department for industrial property rights applications examination.

 

Mykola Pototskyi (left) and Andrii Sukhovii 

 

Global scope of participants

 

The Symposium was attended by representatives of Apple, Amazon, Panasonic, Philips, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Nokia, Ericsson, Volkswagen, Dolby, Deutsche Telekom, and other innovative corporations.

 

Judges from the US, UK, China, India, the Unified Patent Court, and Latin American countries presented their approaches to resolving SEP disputes.

 

Leading national IP offices, including those from the US, China, Germany, the UK, and Singapore, as well as the European Patent Office, also joined the discussion.

 

 

Key topics: balancing innovations and transparent standards

 

The central issue of the Symposium was the assessment of SEP value to determine fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) royalty rates. Ways to avoid excessive “royalty burdens” that could slow down the implementation of standards and complicate SME access to the market were discussed.

 

Other key topics included:

 

• Criteria for patent materiality. Participants noted the inadequacy of SEP declarations alone and the importance of technical verification at the standardization stage.

 

• Data Transparency. WIPO presented a new PATENTSCOPE module with a SEP catalog, which will reduce information fragmentation and improve the quality of analytics.

 

• International disputes. The threats of parallel proceedings in different jurisdictions and the importance of alternative dispute resolution (mediation, arbitration) instead of court proceedings were discussed.

 

• Public policy. Tools for ensuring data transparency, encouraging good faith negotiations, preventing abuse of legal claims, and the need to harmonize international rules were discussed.

 

• Artificial intelligence. Its potential in identifying, evaluating, and administering SEPs was considered as a supporting tool that does not replace expert assessment.

 

Institutional initiatives under the WIPO auspices

 

Among discussed the proposals:

 

• Creation of an arbitration mechanism at WIPO for cross-border and inter-jurisdictional disputes regarding SEP licensing;

 

• Development of a model FRAND agreement for global application;

 

• Improvement of IP policies in standardizing organizations, in particular mandatory negotiations prior to litigation.

 

Significance for Ukraine

 

As noted by representatives of UANIPIO, participation in such an event is an important step towards strengthening national system of legal IP protection and harmonizing it with best international practices.

 

“The global discussion around SEP directly concerns the future of technological development and Ukrainian companies’ access to global markets. It is important for us to be part of the process of developing rules that will determine the market for years to come,”– emphasized Mykola Pototskyi.

 

According to him, the Symposium in Geneva outlined new guidelines: from transparent mechanisms for determining FRAND to the priority of negotiations and arbitration over litigation, as well as the centralization of data in neutral international platforms.

 

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