Let’s Celebrate the Next Generation of Innovators Today, on Pi Day
(WASHINGTON, DC) March 14, 2022 - Today, ACT | The App Association released a statement from president Morgan Reed celebrating Pi Day: “Today is Pi Day—a day where across the globe we celebrate the mathematical constant pi while stuffing ourselves with our favorite pie (mine is rhubarb pie, hold the strawberries). But after the pi-wonder and pie stuffing, Pi Day is an opportunity to remind ourselves of the importance of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education in our lives [...]
What the UK Government Can Do to Encourage Competition and Innovation in the Standard-Essential Patent Ecosystem
One of our goals here at ACT | The App Association is preserving and promoting innovation while encouraging a healthy and robust standards ecosystem and ensuring that our members’ voices are part of the policy discussions around these topics is a crucial part of our efforts. A balanced intellectual property (IP) framework accelerates the growth of technology markets and helps our members thrive, and standard-essential patents are no exception. Our members create internet of things (IoT) products and services that [...]
What Tech SMEs Should Know About the European Commission’s Consultation on SEPs
Internet of things (IoT) innovators across the European Union (EU) have long advocated for the need for EU-wide legislation concerning standard-essential patents (SEPs)—the patents that enable the use of standard technologies like Wi-Fi, 4G, and 5G. Recently, the European Commission launched a public consultation to assess the existing issues around SEP licensing, clarify current rules, and examine possible solutions. Stakeholders, like IoT innovators, academics and experts, trade organisations, associations, and private citizens can comment until 9 May 2022 through a [...]
President Biden to Congress: Forget the Antitrust Bills, Get Privacy Done
In last night’s State of the Union (SOTU) speech, President Biden hit the bullseye on the tech issues voters really care about: taking on social media and privacy abuses. His silence on the “Big Tech” antitrust bills, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (S. 2992) and the Open App Markets Act (S. 2710)—which would harm privacy, security, and small business competitiveness—was resounding and a welcome recognition that those bills are not the answer. The remarks come as Congress is [...]
Next StEPs: DoJ, USPTO, and NIST Draft Policy Update
Quick Reminder Late last year, the United States Department of Justice (DoJ), United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) jointly released a proposed policy statement that updates and improves guidance on standard-essential patents (SEPs). As long-time proponents of fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) licensing terms in the SEP space, we’re excited to support these measures. You can learn more about the impact this draft rule could have on innovation, investment, and [...]
Event Recap: Transparency in FRAND methodologies for SEP evaluations
Part three of the webinar series: A new framework for standard-essential patents (SEPs) On 8 February 2022, ACT | The App Association held the third webinar in a series of public events covering standards and standard-essential patents (SEPs) and how they impact European innovation and competition. The event focused on the transparency in methodologies for calculating fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) rates for SEPs licenses. The full recording of the event is available here. Previous editions of our webinar series [...]