About AllThingsFRAND.com
The role of patents and standards bodies is critical to the future of the software and mobile computing ecosystems. After more than 10 years engaging on these issues, ACT | The App Association created this website as a repository for academic articles, legal cases, agency guidance, and other authoritative and credible writings about standards and fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) licensing. We hope this resource will be helpful to those in industry, government, and academia who are interested in learning more about these important issues.
Principles for Standard Essential Patents
- Patents provide a clear and powerful incentive for innovation and continue to play an important role in driving competition and economic growth.
- Standards provide the foundation for the entire Internet ecosystem and are a critical enabler of innovative startups and small and mid-size firms.
- Holders of patented technologies that are essential to a standard may voluntarily commit to license such patents on FRAND terms, which allows standard essential patent (SEP) holders to obtain fair and reasonable royalties from a large body of standard implementers.
- Companies who voluntarily participate in standards bodies and choose to commit their patents to a standard under FRAND terms must live up to their promises.
- A commitment to FRAND patent licensing is a broad commitment that means:
- The FRAND Commitment Means All Can License – A holder of a FRAND-committed SEP must license that SEP to all companies, organizations, and individuals who use or wish to use the standard on FRAND terms.
- Prohibitive Orders on FRAND-Committed SEPs Should Only Be Allowed in Rare Circumstances – Prohibitive orders (federal district court injunctions and U.S. International Trade Commission exclusion orders) should not be sought by SEP holders or allowed for FRAND-committed SEPs except in rare circumstances where monetary remedies are not available.
- FRAND Royalties – A reasonable rate for a valid, infringed, and enforceable FRAND- committed SEP should be based on the value of the actual patented invention itself, which is separate from purported value due to its inclusion in the standard, hypothetical uses downstream from the smallest saleable patent practicing unit, or other factors unrelated to invention’s value.
- FRAND-committed SEPs Should Respect Patent Territoriality – Patents are creatures of domestic law, and national courts should respect the jurisdiction of foreign patent laws to avoid overreach with respect to SEP remedies. Absent agreement by both parties, no court should impose global licensing terms on pain of a national injunction.
- The FRAND Commitment Prohibits Harmful Tying Practices – While some licensees may wish to get broader licenses, a SEP holder that has made a FRAND commitment cannot require licensees to take or grant licenses to other patents not essential to the standard, invalid, unenforceable, and/or not infringed.
- The FRAND Commitment Follows the Transfer of a SEP – As many jurisdictions have recognized, if a FRAND-committed SEP is transferred, the FRAND commitments follow the SEP in that and all subsequent transfers.
Support for All Things FRAND
The content of AllThingsFRAND.com represents only the opinions of ACT | The App Association and its experts. It does not necessarily represent the individual positions of our member companies and sponsors. While others may submit material, The App Association has full editorial control.
Many member companies and sponsors of The App Association have come together to support this project. Those companies include: