Standard-essential Patents: the patents which are the
Standard Essential Patents(SEPs)
Standard Essential Patents
SEP protects inventions that are enforced in countless products based on standardized technologies such as 4G, 5G, Wi-Fi, or audio and video codecs. Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) are frequently the most valuable patents in a portfolio or sector. Also, enterprises see several litigations around SEPs each year. The SEPs analysis is often challenging as a result of dispersed information.
TT Consultants has been involved in projects associated with SEPs for a protracted time. We have extremely qualified engineers who have attained experience in a wide range of technology standards developed by various Standard Setting Organizations (SSOs) such as 3GPP, IEEE, ITU, etc., and are fully skilled with all the strategies essential to execute such high worth matters. Further, we also have an in-house repository for extracting data related to SEPs like meeting documents, drafts, submissions, etc.
Challenges Faced While Conducting SEP Analysis
Non-availability of a
single-point search engine
for the standard documents
Dispersed SSO search
platforms (3GPP, ETSI, IEEE,
Femtocell, HEVC/H.265,
Wireless Power, etc.)
SEP declaration databases
are not maintained to
provide an accurate
landscape of verified SEPs!
Immense standard
documents (more than
500K+ relevant documents)
Complete manual research &
analysis resulting in a higher
cost of review
No integration with recent
AL & ML-based analysis
technologies
Limited search capabilities
of the SSO search portals
(limited search fields)
SSOs do not determine
which patents are essential,
and declarants are not
required to provide proof of
essentiality.
Our Services
Essentiality check for a pool of SEP candidates
The Standard Setting Organizations (SSO) don’t determine the essentiality of patents, these disputes typically visit trial wherein a courtroom decides the essentiality of a patent. The patents are often grouped together, so licensees pay considerable Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) licensing fees. Unfortunately, not all of those patents qualify as SEPs. Performing an effective essentiality check can be hard to achieve because of the complexity of patent claims and their relationship with standards.
TT Consultants has collected worldwide standards datasets of various SSOs and developed search tools that facilitate the search for patented subject matter in declared standards to check the essentiality of a SEP pool.
Discover undeclared SEPs concealed in your IP portfolio
Many enterprises, especially those owning huge patent portfolios, are unaware about potential SEP patents concealed in their portfolio. Many times, possible SEPs are missed and never reach its SEP declaration stage. The company suffers a great loss due to this negligence by losing thousands, which they could earn in SEPs licensing fees each year. Hence, it is very critical to identify the missed SEPs by proper review of the portfolio. We here at TT Consultants follow various effective methodologies like deeper evaluation of technical description in order to overrule the chance of missing any possible SEP. The standards are always updating, which is another challenge, so our time performs a vigilant search of these updated standards so that nothing slips away from our hands.
Identify the latest version of standard mapping on your SEP
Standards are updated on a regular basis, so the service involves critical analysis of updated versions of standard specifications overlapping with features of the claim. Patents that map to a standard are extremely valuable since all items that comply with the standard are valued. So, TT Consultants is very conscious of providing a high-quality service for such high a value matter. We have our in-house database, which holds latest data related to various standard specifications along with an extremely talented team which performs a comprehensive digging on SSOs websites for locating the updated data.
Knockout predatory SEP(s) & save licensing cost
In view of the complexity of standard technologies and the abundance of information, it is quite difficult to identify prior arts for SEP patents.
We have developed a repository of the entire standard dataset technical specifications, change requests, meeting docs, etc., and made it searchable using advanced search operators.
Claim chart preparation for SEP patents
We assist clients in preparing a solid claim chart that entails a thorough mapping of claims to the relevant standard.
Our domain experts create strong claim charts to ascertain the overlap of the standard technology with the patented subject matter.
Our Methodology
(SEP Licensing)
Identify and mitigate risks arising from the usage of standard/non-core technologies and unknowingly infringing SEP without licensing. We execute a five-step approach to identify SEPs/non-core technologies to avoid any future assertion and risk-free timely licensing of SEPs
Understand
Analyze
Mitigate
Our Methodology
Understand your product portfolio and identify relevant portfolio of focus (high risk)
Analyzing product feature in view of standards
Identifying relevant standard and patents covering product feature
Identifying relevant patent pool/corporate for licensing on FRAND terms
SEP essentiality check & validity search
Our Methodology (SEP Essentiality Check)
Comparing the claims of issued patents with the specifications of the declared standard. (Can be multiple declared standards.)
Mapping the Independent claims of patents with the standard specifications in form of claim charts.
Before mapping, check all versions of the standard or drafts for the relevant subject matter considering date restrictions.
Check whether the claimed subject matter is an optional or mandatory feature of the standard.
Why TT Consultants?
One-stop standard repository – XLPAT, which correlates patents, standard contributions, and SEPs
Collated comprehensive dataset including standards, meeting contributions and Emails of 10+ SSOs
AI-Driven first cut analysis
Hybrid essentiality check backed with subject matter expert analysis
XLPAT - a holistic approach to tackle related concerns
In-house prepared indexed standard knowledge database
Clients Testimonials
IN THE NEWS
FAQs
What is a standard-essential patent (SEP)?
A standard essential patent (SEP) is a patent that claims an invention that is essential to a standard. These standards frequently refer to technologies which are protected under the patent regime.
Standards are technical requirements or specifications that seek to provide a common design for a product or process.
Patents which are essential to a standard and have been adopted by a Standard Setting Organization (SSO) are known as SEPs.
In short, A standard essential patent (SEP) is a patent which can be properly mapped onto a mandatory industry standard such that a product which conforms to that standard infringes the patent.
What are standard-essential patents examples?
Examples include USB, Wi-Fi, wireless charging, 5G, LTE, H.265, and JPEG.
Why are standard-essential patents important?
Patents provide incentives for research, development and facilitate knowledge transfers and standards ensure the rapid diffusion of technologies and the interoperability between products.
How do standard-essential patents work?
A standard essential patent starts out as a typical patent and becomes essential to a given standard usually when it is declared to be essential by one of the contributing participants of the standard.
What is over-declaration in SEPs?
Over-declaration happens when a patent owner asserts that patents are essential to a standard, but the standard can be implemented without implicating the patents. This can result in companies negotiating and paying for licenses for which they don’t need to pay, and can have the effect of causing companies to overpay.
Which organization sets FRAND license terms for SEPs in India?
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)
What are the major issues involved in SEP litigation?
- Patent holdup
- Royalty base
- Royalty stacking
- Availability of injunctive relief
What is FRAND?
As part of the standard-setting process, and sometimes as part of the process of declaring a patent to be essential to the standard, the contributors of a technology who own patents on the technology agree to license the patent on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms pursuant to the policies of a standards-setting organization, sometimes abbreviated as FRAND.
- Fair: It is usually quite easy to recognize unfair licensing requirements, e.g., it would be considered unfair to demand concessions that are not part of the licensing deal from a licensee, or to tie the grant of the license to unrelated commitments. However, fairness is subjective and more difficult to define.
- Reasonable: Also a subjective theory, a good benchmark for evaluating reasonableness would be to compare with general industry practice, especially when discussing licensing royalty rates.
- Non-discriminatory: Licensees that are in similar situations should always receive the same terms and rates. If for some reason this doesn’t happen, there should always be some objective grounds for the difference in treatment.