Nokia says draft EU patent rules one-sided, will undermine Europe

HTC

25/04/2023 16:41

By Foo Yun Chee
       BRUSSELS, April 25 (Reuters) - EU draft rules aimed at
staving off spats over patents essential to key technologies for
telecoms equipment and connected cars appear to put the onus and
cost on patent owners, which could undermine Europe's leadership
in such areas, Nokia said.
    The comments from the Finnish telecoms equipment maker,
which makes 40% of its revenues from its portfolio of standard
essential patents (SEPs), come a day before the European
Commission is scheduled to present the draft rules.
    Under the proposal seen by Reuters, patent holders are
required to register their patents with the EU Intellectual
Property Office (EUIPO) if they want to charge patent fees or
take legal action.
    EUIPO will also oversee the process to determine fair,
reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) royalties, which
should be concluded within nine months.
    The proposal is unbalanced and ignores a key problem for
patent owners, said Nokia's  NOKIA.HE  head of IP policy
Collette Rawnsley. 
    "The leaked draft regulation appears one-sided with
additional obligations, burdens and costs falling on SEP owners
rather than implementers," she told Reuters in an interview.
    "Unfortunately, there is nothing in the proposal to address
the issue of hold-out, where bad faith implementers avoid or
delay taking a licence and paying for innovative technology that
they are using."
    She said Europe, currently home to leaders in cellular
standards, could even lose its lead under the draft rules.
    "EU regulatory intervention and changes to the framework for
SEP licensing risk making European forums for standardisation
less attractive. This risks undermining European leadership in
these critical technologies," Rawnsley said.
    She dismissed regulator's concerns of patent spats which in
the previous decade involved Apple  AAPL.O , Samsung
 005930.KS , Nokia, Microsoft  MSFT.O  and others.
    "The majority of patent licensing agreements are agreed
amicably. Litigation is rare and always a last resort.
Regrettably, litigation is sometimes necessary to get
recalcitrant implementers to the table to negotiate in good
faith a FRAND licence," she said.    

 (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee
Editing by Mark Potter)
 ((foo.yunchee@thomsonreuters.com; +32 2 585 2866; Reuters
Messaging: foo.yunchee.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))