Research On The FRAND Principle Of Standards-Essential Patents Licensing

With the rise of globalization of trade and enterprise’s intellectual property strategy implementation, the combination of patent and technical standard began to appear. By standardizing their patented technology, patent holders receive a higher return. The Standard-Essential Patents (SEP) licensing is no longer confined to a small area, but with the promotion of standards, it growing to an industry. Therefore, it has important practical significance to response to the multinational patents crackdown from the study of SEP licensing. The Fair Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) principle as the most commonly used licensing of SEP licensing, there are many attractive places to further research.On October 28.2013, Guangdong provincial higher people’s court made the final judgment for Hawei V. InterDigital Group, one straight out case of the intellectual property rights settled. As the first case resulting from the standards essential patents in China and the first legal action that the court introduced the FRAND principle to decide the case, it has provided a clear guide for the future related cases.This paper attempts to explore the major issues of the the FRAND principle of SEP licensing through analysising the typical case -Hawei V. InterDigital Group (Contains:InterDigital Technology Corporation, InterDigital Communications Corporation, InterDigital Corporation), in order to make the FRAND principle becomes more clear in the SEP licensing. So as to effectively regulate the behavior of patent licensing.This article is divided into four chapters. The first chapter summarizes the case of Hawei V. InterDigital Group, clearly showing the intellectual property issues of the case. The second chapter discusses the basic theories of patent licensing in technical standard, analyzes the SEP and patent licensing issues in the combination of technical standard and patent. What’s more, it also describes the basic conditions of existing technical standards in the field of communication and the conditions of InterDigital Group’s patent transactions. The third chapter focuses on the meaning of FRAND principle, discuss the meaning of the principle of fairness reasonableness and the principle of non-discrimination. And by empirical analysising the current standardization organizations’ FRAND licensing principle, point out the ambiguity and uncertainty of the FRAND principle. The fourth chapter, as the core, focuses on the core issues of the FRAND principle in the case of Hawei V. InterDigital Group. For example, the legal status of FRAND principle, the regulation of violating the FRAND principle, and the standard-essential patent licensing fees in the FRAND principle. Through the combination of theory and case analysis, strive to make the FRAND principle can be more clear in judicial practice.