Protecting Innovation in Solar: Why Standard-Essential Patent Licensing Reform Matters
At this year’s RE+ conference in Las Vegas, ACT | The App Association highlighted a challenge that solar technology innovators are only now beginning to grapple with: abusive licensing practices tied to standard-essential patents (SEPs). For years, small app developers and device makers in the communications sector have faced aggressive tactics from a handful of abusive SEP licensors who exploit their market position to demand excessive royalties or impose opaque licensing terms. Now, as solar developers increasingly adopt standardized solutions [...]
Inside the EU’s Digital Markets Act Workshops
A Developer Community Spotlight with Five Unique Startup Founders For startups, scaleups, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the Digital Markets Act (DMA) isn’t just an abstract policy; it’s a daily reality. These companies operate with limited resources and rely heavily on the tools and services that platforms provide. However, despite being intimately familiar with how these platforms function and how developers build their business on them, startups and SMEs have had limited opportunities to take part in the [...]
Encryption in the EU: What Startups Need to Know
Developers keep users safe by building security-by-design with tools like encryption, authentication, and abuse-prevention protections that are the front line of protection. However, proposals currently being considered in Sweden and at the European Union level could threaten those tools and the critical protections startups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their users rely on. The European Commission’s draft Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) Regulation would require online services, from messaging apps to cloud platforms, to scan, report, and [...]
ACT | The App Association is Deeply Concerned About Deleterious Effects of H-1B Visa Announcement
Washington, D.C. – Last week’s announcement of a new $100,000 tax on H-1B visas is a gut punch to small and medium-sized tech companies. For more than 15 years, ACT | The App Association has firmly held the position that access to H-1B visas for specially skilled employees is a huge competitive advantage for our small business members and a driver of their innovation. “By making H-1B talent financially infeasible for startups and small developers, this policy punishes America’s [...]
No Clarity, No Protection: What the Withdrawal of the SEP Regulation Means for EU Startups
Despite being adopted by a super-majority vote (454 to 83) of the European Parliament, the European Commission decided to withdraw its proposed Standard Essential Patents (SEP) Regulation earlier this year. This leaves startups, scaleups, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Europe exposed to the same unpredictable and costly licensing environment they were promised relief from. Introduced in April 2023, the regulation was designed to make the SEP licensing landscape more transparent and predictable, especially for SMEs, by reducing [...]