Posts Tagged: "2019 USPTO-NIST-DOJ Joint Policy Statement"

Much like a biological ecosystem, the development, commercialization, and licensing of standardized technologies involves a delicate balance among many diverse and competing participants. The 2021 Draft Policy Statement on Remedies for Standards-Essential Patents Subject to Voluntary F/RAND Commitments (hereinafter “the 2021 Draft Policy Statement”), however, appears to be primarily concerned with an issue faced exclusively by implementers when dealing with owners of larger patent portfolios, but without explicitly saying so. This observation is based on the 2021 Draft Policy Statement’s reference to the vague and ill-defined notion of patent “hold-up”.

The U.S. Department of Justice – Antitrust Division (DOJ) is requesting public comment on a new iteration of the Joint DOJ-USPTO-NIST Policy Statement on Remedies for Standards-Essential Patents Subject to Voluntary FRAND Commitments. The announcement comes in response to President Joe Biden’s July 2021 Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy, which asked the three agencies to review the 2019 statement.

The 2019 USPTO-NIST-DOJ Joint Policy Statement on Standard-Essential Patents Subject to Voluntary RAND or FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) commitments “intended to solve [judicial] misinterpretation, and to encourage balance in our patent ecosystem, and to further strengthen patent rights,” USPTO Deputy Director Laura Peter said in her keynote at a recent IP-antitrust event. Peter delivered the remarks at an event hosted by the Eagle Forum Education & Legal Defense Fund, a conservative public policy and grassroots organization founded by the late Phyllis Schlafly, titled, “Inventing Dynamic Competition: Intellectual Property, Antitrust, and Competition” September 30 in Washington, D.C.