Too much ink has been spilled in an attempt to gin up antitrust controversies regarding efforts by holders of “standard essential patents” (SEPs, patents covering technologies that are adopted as part of technical standards relied upon by manufacturers) to obtain reasonable returns to their property.
CONCLUSION and Footnotes - Disclosures of potentially standard-essential patents and patent applications have for long been a topic of little interest for third parties to.
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Rarely must patent infringers demand their right to pay
royalties. But several multinational manufacturers have gone to
court to insist that they – and not other participants in the
supply chain – make payment of any patent royalties. From a
contractual perspective, judicial analysis of such claims has
focused on the non-discrimination prong of the fair, reasonable,
and non-discriminatory ( FRAND ) patent licensing
commitment. In other words, some manufacturers have argued, and
some courts and administrative agencies have agreed, that a
patentee s refusal to provide FRAND licenses at all levels of