Response to the IPR Enforcement Directive Consultation (duplicated post)

Brussels, April 14, 2016 – The Fair Standards Alliance (“FSA”) is a non-profit association committed to promoting fair, equitable and proportional behaviors in connection with the licensing of standards-essential patents (SEPs). Together, our members spent more than 32 billion euros on R&D and innovation in 2014, and own more than 164,000 patents. Our members employ more than 390,000 people within the EU, and many hundreds of thousands more worldwide.

We believe that our experiences with licensing behaviors, successes and abuses in connection with SEPs can provide the Commission with valuable insight as it reviews the Enforcement Directive and considers possible updates and clarifications. In this submission, we encourage the Commission to clarify and amplify the importance of Article 3’s requirements of fairness, equity and proportionality in the enforcement of IPR in light of our collective experience. Providing clarity that these requirements must be considered and applied under Articles 8, 9, 11, 12 and 13 will enhance the Enforcement Directive and strengthen the EU Single Market by providing much improved harmonization across Member States and a more unified and secure framework for companies doing businesses in the European Union. Such improvements will also encourage a common approach among courts, whereas currently certain courts have adopted disparate rules and procedures under Articles 8, 9, 11, 12 and 13. By way of this Position Paper and as detailed below we provide concrete proposals for amendments to these Articles.

While our recommendations focus on principles applicable to all IPR enforcement actions, we believe that a clearer and more robust application of the requirements of fairness, equity and proportionality will meaningfully improve treatment of disputes involving SEPs, and may help to address many of the problems that our organization is dedicated to solving.