European Commission roadmap – SEPs for a European digitalized economy – Feedback

Brussels, May 8, 2017 – The Fair Standards Alliance (‘FSA’) thanks the European Commission for the opportunity to provide feedback on the European Commission’s Roadmap on Standard Essential Patent for a European Digitalized Economy (the ‘Roadmap’). The FSA previously provided feedback on the initiative in its Input Paper in Response to the European Commission Worship on Standard Essential Patents in the Context of New ICT Standardization Developments, held on 25 January 2017. This paper has been resubmitted as part of the current initiative as Annex 1 (the ‘Input Paper’). This paper aims to summarize the FSA’s position, by focusing on the key points referred to in the Roadmap, and highlighting the main concerns we have in relation to the principles the Commission is considering.

Before going into the details of the initiative, we would like to clarify one key point – which in our view is a fundamental misrepresentation of the contextual framework. The Roadmap contrasts ‘innovators’ against ‘the implementers’, and indicates that “efficient licensing of SEPs is necessary to give to innovators – the patent holders – an adequate return on their investment.” Leaving aside the point on return on investment (which is dealt with separately on page 4 of the Input Paper), SEP holders do not hold a ‘monopoly on innovation,’ nor are they the only parties making substantial investments.