LUXEMBOURG -- Sisvel, Europe’s largest and longest-established patent pool operator, welcomes the European Commission’s decision to reassess the proposed EU regulation on standard essential patents. This move aligns with the principles spelled out in the Draghi report and the EU’s new agenda on competitiveness and reinforces European leadership in standards-related innovation.

Sisvel shares the Commission’s aims of increasing transparency around SEPs, reducing transaction costs and facilitating licence agreements on FRAND terms. Indeed, these are the challenges we work hard to solve every day as a patent pool operator. However, we spoke out against the proposed regulation from the very beginning because we felt strongly that it did not advance those aims. Instead, it jeopardised European global leadership in connectivity R&D and standards-setting by saddling innovators with a new and burdensome layer of bureaucracy, while potentially imposing additional costs on European SMEs to the benefit of large technology implementers.

We are encouraged by the European Commission’s new focus on restoring European competitiveness. The decision to withdraw the SEP regulation is a solid step in this direction. The removal of a major uncertainty will bring immediate relief to European innovators, who have a central role to play in restoring dynamism and boosting growth.

As the Commission weighs whether to introduce another proposal or adopt a different approach, our door is open. We stand ready to share our deep knowledge of the SEP environment acquired over more than 40 years and to explain how patent pools promote transparent, efficient and equitable access to world-class technology.