The U.S. Department of Justice recently restored its 2015 Business Review Letter supporting key clarifications on standard-essential patent (SEP) licensing issues made by the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA). The App Association welcomes the DOJ Antitrust Division’s decision to restore the 2015 Business Review Letter in support of IEEE-SA’s efforts to clarify its patent policy by clarifying and strengthening its fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) licensing requirements.
The policy provided much-needed certainty on the meaning of the FRANDcommitment that patent holders make when volunteering their technology for inclusion in an IEEE standard, including a “License to All” requirement and important clarifications on the availability of prohibitive orders, the valuation of SEPs, and other important matters. The App Association led a diverse, cross-sectoral multistakeholder effort to urge the current Administration to reconsider the unprecedented alteration to this 2015 Business Review Letter issued during the previous Administration, which drastically disrupted the balance the 2015 Business Review Letter provided.
“This decision is a win for American innovation, competition, and consumers,” said the App Association’s President Morgan Reed in a statement to press. “The transformative potential of technologies like 5G and the internet of things can only be realized if the underlying open standards are available to all interested players consistent with FRAND norms. On behalf of our members and allied stakeholders, we thank the DOJ and Acting U.S. Assistant Attorney General Richard Powers for these actions to uphold a vision where the future is truly ‘Made in America.’”
Read the full letter and memo to the Biden-Harris Administration here.