Information and communication technologies

Transparency and Predictability of Licensing in ICT through Patent Pools?

Information and communication technology (ICT) standardisation is facing an increasing impact from the inclusion of "patented" technologies in ICT standards and specifications, which raises a number of questions that need to be addressed.

For ICT standardisation to continue its role as a major instrument supporting competitiveness, as well as increasing interoperability and responding to industry expectations and societal needs, an adequate balance has to be found. In particular, IPR policies, rules and practice implemented by standards developing organisations should not only reflect a proper balance between the interests of IPR owners and users/implementors of standards. They should also actively promote transparency and predictability in the marketplace. Moreover, standards developing organisations should be able to effectively implement such IPR policies while responding to the requirements set by competition law.
In the White Paper proposing measures to improve the European ICT standardisation policy, the Commission included actions to further increase transparency and predictability of IPR treatments in ICT standardisation. To that end various events were organised, also in cooperation with the European Patent Office, aimed to further analyse and propose improvements on many aspects related to IPR treatment in ICT standardisation.
Following the previous events, the Commission, in cooperation with the European Patent Office, organised a workshop that aims at evaluating whether and how patent pools could contribute to further increasing transparency and predictability in IPR treatments in ICT standardisation. In particular, the workshop helped to identify advantages and disadvantages of patent pools in relation to ICT standardisation and to subsequently identify how patent pools could best function in order to avoid antitrust concerns.

The event focused on 4 main parts as follows :

Setting the scene
Building and running a patent pool
Users' experience
Legal and organisational frameworks

The event took place in Brussels 18 April 2012, Bedford Hotel and Congress Centre, 135-137 Rue du Midi, 1000 Brussels.

Programme pdf - 13 KB [13 KB]

Report pdf - 63 KB [63 KB]

Presentations:

David Law pdf - 317 KB [317 KB]
Daniel Hermele pdf - 457 KB [457 KB]
Donncadh Woods
Giustino de Sanctis
Heinz Polsterer
Jari Vaario pdf - 62 KB [62 KB]
Michel Goudelis pdf - 115 KB [115 KB]
Serge Raes pdf - 237 KB [237 KB]
Pierre Regibeau pdf - 461 KB [461 KB]
Ruud Peters pdf - 45 KB [45 KB]
Ross Roger pdf - 2 MB [2 MB]