Standards frequently make reference to technologies that are protected by patents. A patent that protects technology essential to a standard is called a standard-essential patent. It is impossible to manufacture standard-compliant products such as smartphones or tablets without using technologies covered by one or more SEPs. SEPs are different from patents that are not essential to a standard (non-SEPs), such as design patents, for example, which protect the design features of an invention. This is because, generally, companies can invent alternative solutions that do not infringe a non-SEP (whereas they cannot design around a SEP). For example the "slide to unlock" technology is covered by a non-SEP. Most smartphone manufacturers were able to develop different technologies for unlocking a smartphone screen which do not infringe the "slide to unlock" patent. This would not have been possible in the case of a SEP. There are thousands of SEPs reading on technologies implemented in various standards set by the SSOs. For example, the total number of SEPs declared to ETSI is 155,4748. More than 23,500 patents have been declared essential to the GSM and the "3G"or UMTS standards developed by ETSI9. These standards need to be implemented in virtually all smartphones and tablets sold in Europe. Given their essentiality to a standard, obviously SEPs are important for companies. They are also litigated more often than non-SEPs. (...) In the telecommunication sector, there was a noticeable surge in high profile patent litigation involving many important industry players such as Apple, Motorola, Samsung, Google and Microsoft. But as shown in the table below, litigation on the basis of SEPs also happens in many other industries. © European Commission

This Glossary matches the list of keywords used by Concurrences search engine. Each keyword is automatically updated by the most recent EU and national case laws from the e-Competitions Bulletin and Concurrences Review. The definitions are excerpt from DG COMP’s Glossary of terms used in EU competition policy (© European Union, 2002) and the OECD’s Glossary of industrial organisation economics and competition law (© OECD, 1993).
Standard-Essential Patent (SEP)
Glossary
A
Absolute territorial protection
•
Abuse of dominant position
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Abuse of economic dependence
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Access to essential facility
•
Access to information
•
Access to the file
•
Agency agreement
•
Agent
•
Agreement (notion)
•
Amicus curiae
•
Ancillary restraints
•
Annulment
•
Anticompetitive objet or effect
•
Anticompetitive practices
•
Applicable law
•
Arbitration
B
C
Cartel
•
Clearance phase I (merger)
•
Clearance phase II (merger)
•
Collecting society
•
Collective dominance
•
Collective redress (class action)
•
Competence
•
Competition policy
•
Competition policy
•
Complaint
•
Compliance programme
•
Compulsory license
•
Concerted practices
•
Concession
•
Concurrent jurisdiction
•
Consumers protection
•
Consumers’ associations
•
Control (change)
•
Control (notion)
•
Cooperation Agreement
•
Cooperation between competition authorities
•
Coordinated effects
•
Copyright
•
Corporate group
•
Corruption
•
Cost-based access
•
Criminal sanctions
•
Cross subsidisation
D
E
ECHR
•
Economic analysis
•
Economic efficiency
•
Effect on trade between Member States
•
Effective judicial protection
•
Environmental protection
•
Essential facility
•
European Competition Network (ECN)
•
Excess prices
•
Exchanges of information
•
Exclusive distribution
•
Exclusive purchasing agreement
•
Exclusive right (Art. 106 TFEU)
•
Exclusivity clause
•
Exhaustion
•
Extra-territoriality
F
I
M
P
Parallel imports (parallel trade)
•
Passing-on
•
Pay-for-delay
•
Periodic penalty payment
•
Personal data
•
Predatory pricing
•
Preliminary ruling (Art. 267 TFUE)
•
Price discrimination
•
Price-fixing agreement
•
Prices
•
Principle of effectiveness
•
Principle of equal treatment
•
Principle of equivalence
•
Principle of proportionality
•
Private enforcement
•
Privatization
•
Procedural autonomy
•
Professional association
•
Public procurement
•
Public undertaking
R
S
Sector inquiry
•
Selective distribution
•
Services of general economic interest
•
Single branding
•
Sole control
•
Spill-over effects
•
Standard-Essential Patent (SEP)
•
State action defense
•
State aid (compatibility)
•
State aid (existing aid)
•
State aid (notification)
•
State aid (notion)
•
State aid (recovery)
•
State aid (tax ruling)
•
State aid (unlawful aid)
•
State measure
•
Sudden break of established business relationships