Event Recap: The essentiality, validity, and infringement of declared SEPs
Part two of the webinar series: A new framework for standard-essential patents (SEPs) On 30 November 2021, ACT | The App Association held the second webinar in a series of public events covering standards and standard-essential patents (SEPs) and how they impact European innovation and competition (view online). The event also focused on the various issues European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face when using standards, including licensing SEPs, and the impact these barriers have on SMEs’ ability to innovate [...]
Security at Scale: U.S. Industry Notches a Win Against Cyber Criminals
As Congress winds up its work in the first session of the 117th Congress, government and private sector interests are hard at work to carve a shared path on cybersecurity. It seems that over the past year, every committee in Congress shone a spotlight on the cybersecurity issues that fell into their respective jurisdictions. For its part, the U.S. House of Representatives Small Business Committee invited ACT | The App Association to testify in a hearing on the cybersecurity posture [...]
New Study: Does Patent Monetization Promote SSO Participation?
A new study from Timothy Simcoe and Qing Zhang examines the impact of Standard Setting Organization (SSO) intellectual property rights (IPR) policies on standardization and innovation. The authors "interpret these findings as evidence that any link between IPR policies, innovation, and SSO participation is much weaker than purely theoretical arguments to the contrary often suggest." Read the study here.
Year in Review: EU & UK Member Spotlights 2021
ACT | The App Association exists to support our members’ growth by advocating for an environment that inspires and rewards innovation. We help our members navigate regulatory environments and provide them with resources to leverage their intellectual assets to raise capital, create jobs, and continue innovating. 2021 certainly came with its challenges but also brought about an unprecedented increase in the use of digital tools, apps, and connected devices. The innovations of the past year opened doors and created new [...]
Security and Trust from an App Maker’s Point of View: A whitepaper on security and trust in the app ecosystem
In just 14 short years, the app economy emerged out of nowhere to become an €830 billion ecosystem. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the app economy thrived and played a key role in sustaining our work, studies, and daily lives. In particular, small app development companies, like ACT | The App Association members, drive the app economy and advance innovation every day. This whitepaper discusses the importance of security safeguards on software distribution platforms and the role such platforms play in [...]
How Government Restrictions on Platform Privacy Measures Could Harm Small App Developers
As we begin to look back and take stock of 2021, certainly one of the key themes in the technology policy space is the rapid convergence of the competition and privacy policy areas. Lawmakers in a handful of states, key committees in Congress, and policymakers around the world are taking a closer look at the relationship between large digital platforms’ market power and consumer outcomes on privacy, resulting in a wide range of policy solutions that attempt to balance both [...]