7 SEPs and Competition Law: From the Perspective of Huawei v IDC Case

Subject(s):

Monopoly — Patents and know how — Jurisdictions

This chapter considers Standard Essential Patents (“SEPs”), which refer to the indispensable and unsubstitutable patents to a technical standard. Put it in another way, SEPs are patents that have to be applied when enforcing a technical standard. Technical standard is the compulsory requirement for relevant undertakings, if it has been widely used so as to become an industrial standard or state compulsory standard, and products or services that cannot meet a “threshold” are prohibited from entering the market. Due to the openness of the standard, technology licenses related to SEPs concern public interest. The chapter also shows how industry standards are widely acknowledged to be one of the engines driving the modern economy. Standards can make products less costly to produce and more valuable for consumers.