BRUSSELS Reuters - EU draft rules aimed at staving off spats over patents essential to key technologies for telecoms equipment and connected cars appear to put the onus and cost on patent owners, which could undermine Europe's leadership in such areas.
The comments from Finland's telecoms equipment firm, which makes 40% of its revenue from its portfolio of standard-essential patents SEPs, come two days before the European Commission is scheduled to present the draft rules.
Under Reuters' proposal, patent holders must register their patents with the EU Intellectual Property Office EUIPO if they want to charge patent fees or take legal action.
EUIPO will also oversee the process to determine fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory FRAND royalties, which should be completed within nine months.
The proposal is unfair and ignores a key problem for patent owners, said Collette Rawnsley, Nokia's head of IP policy.
The leaked version of the regulation appears one-sided with additional obligations, burdens and costs falling on SEP owners rather than implementers, she said.
However, there is nothing in the proposal to address the issue of hold-out, where bad faith implementers avoid or delay taking a licence and paying for innovative technology that they are using. She said Europe, currently led by leaders in cellular standards, could even lose its lead under the draft rules.
The EU regulatory intervention and changes to the SEP licensing risk make European forums for standardization less attractive. This risks undermining European leadership in these critical technologies, Mr Rawnsley said.
She dismissed concerns from the government over patent spats which in the past decade included Apple, Samsung, Nokia, Microsoft and others.
A majority of patent license agreements are agreed upon amicably. Litigation is often a last resort, and it's rare. However, she said, it is sometimes necessary to get recalcitrant implementers to the table to negotiate a FRAND licence in good faith.