An essential patent or standard-essential patent (SEP) is a patent that claims an invention that must be used to comply with a technical standard.[1] Standard-setting organizations (SSOs) normally require their members to agree to license their essential patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.[2] Determining which patents are essential to a particular standard can be complex.[3]

See also

  • Patent ambush, a situation in which patents are withheld during development of a proposed standard
  • Patent infringement, the commission of a prohibited act with respect to a patented invention
  • Patent thicket, a negatively connotated term for an overlapping set of patent rights
  • Orange-Book-Standard, a German decision on the interaction between patent law and technical standards
  • Standardization, the process of creating technical standards

References

Further reading and viewing

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