Washington, D.C. – Today, a broad group of companies and organizations representing the auto and technology industries sent a letter to the White House to raise awareness of the growing danger of standards essential patent (SEP) abuse and expressed support for government action against anti-competitive licensing practices involving SEPs. The letter was signed by 15 companies and organizations including ACT | The App Association, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, Dell, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Intel, Samsung, and VIZIO.

Technological standards like Wi-Fi and LTE provide the basis for technological innovation across industries by enabling products from different manufacturers to work together. Standards simplify product development, encourage competition, and enable the development of new markets.

The letter expresses concern about a growing number of SEP holders in the telecommunications chip industry who are reneging on their voluntary commitments to license their patents under fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. These licensing commitments provide the foundation for the entire standard setting system, and if this practice continues to spread, it could undermine the entire standards system with dramatic impacts on the U.S. economy. While the group does not take a position on the merits of the Federal Trade Commission’s January 20, 2017, enforcement action against Qualcomm, they argue that technological standards are vital to the U.S. economy and “the critical issues it raises deserve a robust adjudication.”

“We are concerned that the entire concept of open standards could collapse if SEP abuse continues to proliferate, and we’re urging the White House to take this threat to innovation and the American economy seriously,” said App Association President Morgan Reed. “The letter’s signatories own more than 100,000 patents and believe strongly in the value of intellectual property, but the issue here is companies who voluntarily committed to license their patents under fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms who are reneging on those promises.”

He continued, “nearly every industry and companies of every size depend on standards to create interoperability and opportunities for innovation. That is why the App Association created the All Things FRAND initiative to track these issues, and it’s why we are urging the White House to support efforts to stop SEP licensing abuse.”

The letter was signed by the following organizations:

ACT | The App Association

Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers

Computer Ways

Dell Inc.

HARMAN International Industries Incorporated

HP Inc.

Intel Corporation

Jadware LLC

Juniper Networks, Inc.

PreEmptive Solutions

Samsung Electronics America, Inc.

SpeedFind, Inc.

VIZIO, Inc.

1564B