On the 29 November 2017, the European Commission set out the new EU approach to Standards Essential Patents (SEPs). This long-awaited communication was the result of a public consultation and a continuous dialogue of the Commission with standards setting organisations, industry and a wider community of stakeholders.
Small Business Standards (SBS) welcomes the Communication on Standards Essential Patents (SEPs) as a contribution to streamline patented standardised technologies by companies of any size and sector. Many of the issues addressed in the Communication are highly relevant for SMEs that, differently from larger companies, are less used to work with SEPs. Standards and SEPs are necessary for the interconnection of an ever-growing number of products with an economic potential of the Internet of Things up to 9 trillion € per year1. It is evident that not only global tech companies, but also startups and SMEs have a big stake in such a huge economic market.