The Pros And Cons Of Antitrust Laws

A holder of any Intellectual Property acquires a monopolistic right over his intellectual properties. These rights are awarded by the state and the user can exercise these rights to restrain others from using them without his consent, any violation of such rights leads to infringement. Antitrust laws, in turn, ensure that new proprietary technologies, products, and services are bought, sold, traded, and licensed in a competitive environment. In today‘s marketplace, new technological advancements are constantly replacing those that came before, as competitors are driven to improve their existing products or introduce new products in order to maintain their market share. The competition law aims to prevent the misuse of dominant position while

An Essential Patent or Standard Essential Patent is a patent that claims an invention that must be used to comply with a standard. Washington District Court in Microsoft Corp. v. Motorola Mobility, Inc. defined SEP as "A given patent is ‘essential’ to a standard if use of the standard requires infringement of the patent, even if acceptable alternatives of that patent could have been written into the standard." It has become impossible to manufacture standard-compliant products without using technologies covered by one or more

To promote homogenous application of the standard and to evade any competition concerns, such licenses must be made available under Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) terms. Licensing of Standards Essential Patents (SEPs) on Fair, reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) terms is a foundation of the standards development process. The underlying principle behind FRAND is that it benefits the inclusion of patented technology in technical standards while ensuring that the holder of SEPs should not abuse the dominant market position it gains from widespread adoption of a voluntary technical standard. Patents that are considered essential to implement a chosen industry standard cannot be exploited like any other patent, and certainly not to the exclusion of other market participants. ETSI’s and IEEE’s IPR policies include that patent holders should license their SEP on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms and conditions. Bureau of Indian Standards, the national technical standard setting authority of India, has no mention of an IPR policy or linkage between patents and standards. When a SSO chooses a particular technology, standard implementers are locked in to using that technology, and thus SEP holder’s “bargaining power surges because a prospective licensee has no