Insight 40 - Magazine - Page 45
“I would like to thank the members of
our industry working group for their
invaluable input in developing the
Resource Hub. I hope that this evolving
resource helps businesses operating
in the UK who interact with the SEPs
ecosystem more confidently engage
in standardisation and overcome the
complexities more easily.”
Matt Dixon, President of the Chartered
Institute of Patent Attorneys said:
“Standard Essential Patents are an
important part of the intellectual
property landscape in many industries,
so the launch of the SEP Hub will
provide further support to businesses,
which CIPA fully supports. It is great
to see the UKIPO leading the world in
providing such support. SEPs are one
way in which patents can be used to
give a fair reward to innovators while
enabling the effective development of
interoperable technologies. Supporting
the understanding of SEPs helps business
owners make better decisions around
their use of protected technology. This
is a great initiative and we’re pleased to
support it.
“The Hub is not static. It will continue
to be developed over time to include
further guidance, case studies and general
support for businesses who have an
interest in matters related to SEPs.
“The Hub forms part of a package of nonregulatory actions from the UK IPO to help
achieve greater transparency and balance
within the SEPs ecosystem, and improve
how the market functions for those who
interact with it.
“These include working with other
jurisdictions around the world to
"The Hub forms
part of a package
of non-regulatory
actions from the
UK IPO to help
achieve greater
transparency and
balance within the
SEPs ecosystem"
encourage greater collaboration and
co-ordination on SEPs policy, and
taking positive steps to engage and
collaborate with Standard Development
Organisations, particularly with regard to
their IP rights policies.”
In 2022, the IPO undertook a call for
views to gather evidence on how the SEPs
ecosystem is functioning. Responses
outlined important issues from market
functioning, the role of standard
development and IPRs, to issues around
SEP licensing and dispute resolution.
In 2023, the IPO continued to develop
knowledge of the challenges faced by
innovative smaller businesses in the
SEPs ecosystem. Our questionnaire for
SMEs, small-cap and mid-cap businesses
gave us a much better understanding
of what works well and not so well for
these businesses. In 2024, we continued
to engage in other evidence-gathering
activity, including commissioning
research, and formal and informal industry
engagement.
The IPO found that the SEPs ecosystem
is incredibly complex and has some
challenges that need addressing in order
to achieve a greater balance and improve
the overall functioning of the market.
One of those challenges identified is
the lack of transparency. Another is
the effective use of dispute resolution
services. A third involves the existence of
knowledge and information gaps between
SEP holders and SEP implementers.
The launch of the SEPs Resource Hub
forms part of a suite of non-regulatory
measures by the IPO to begin to address
some of these challenges. The objectives
are:
• to help implementers, especially SMEs,
navigate and better understand the SEPs
ecosystem and Fair Reasonable and NonDiscriminatory (FRAND) licensing;
• to improve transparency in the
ecosystem, both in relation to pricing and
essentiality;
• to achieve greater efficiency in respect of
dispute resolution, including arbitration
and mediation
In May 2024, the UK Intellectual Property
Office and the US Patent and Trade
mark Office signed a Memorandum of
Understanding to co-operate in their work
on Standard Essential Patents. The MoU
will allow both offices to work together
on matters related to SEPs, including for
example in conducting outreach activity to
raise awareness of SEPs issues, or working
together to achieve shared international
coordination aspirations.
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