EC Launches New Survey for SMEs Involved in Standardisation

Patents provide incentives for parties active in research and development and facilitate the transfer of knowledge, whereas standards ensure the rapid diffusion of technologies and interoperability between products. Since most standards are based on patented technologies, licensing becomes key for the success of a standard.

The European Commission (EC) launched an initiative aiming to create an efficient system to achieve the balanced and fair licensing of standard-essential patents (SEPs). Following the call for evidence and public consultation period, the EC has now published a survey directed at all start-ups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) who are SEP holders and SEP implementers, namely developing, using or innovating on standards.

All the start-ups and SMEs involved in standardisation, investing in, relying on or developing communication technologies are invited to complete the survey to help improve the existing SEP framework.

The survey will be open until 20.11.2022 and can be found here.