SEP Litigations & Issues in Determining the FRAND License

Abstract

Lately, there have been several multi-jurisdiction litigations involving SEPs. In large part this is because of thecomplexity of executing FRAND licenses for SEP portfolios. This work focuses on, and explains, some of the issues thatarise in the context of FRAND licensing- including, the problem of over-declaration by SEP holders, the possibility ofpatent hold-out, difficulties associated in court determination of terms of a global FRAND license for SEP portfolios, lack ofawareness regarding the nuances of SEP/FRAND space, and the intrinsic informational imbalances that exist in any FRANDnegotiation. The issues discussed here are by no means exhaustive and many of them do not have easy answers.