December 18, 2024, Washington D.C. – The Save Our Standards coalition released the following statement on today’s House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property hearing:
“American companies and manufacturers have long led the world in innovation – but Chinese and other bad actors are abusing the standard essential patent (SEP) licensing system to undermine U.S. supply chains and competitive advantages. Today’s hearing represents a critical step forward in addressing the challenges faced by SEP licensees, particularly the threat of SEP injunctions against American manufacturers. We are grateful to Subcommittee Chairman Darrell Issa and Ranking Member Hank Johnson for shining a light on the weaponization of SEP licensing practices and its impact on American manufacturers, especially small and medium-sized enterprises. The U.S. must maintain our leadership in licensing in the face of China. Our competitiveness – and our national security – are at stake.”
Underscoring the need for this hearing, the EU’s Unified Patent Court granted the Chinese government-backed firm Huawei an injunction against the American manufacturer Netgear on the same day that the hearing took place. This injunction will block Netgear from selling its Wi-Fi products in multiple European countries. This injunction is one of many examples of Chinese companies using voluntary SEPs against American companies, and demonstrates the harm the Committee is seeking to address.
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Save Our Standards is a broad-based coalition of innovators, small businesses, associations, academics, and consumer groups dedicated to reinforcing the FRAND licensing commitment and its important role in technical standards to enable competition and innovation that directly benefits consumers. We work to educate decision-makers and stakeholders on policies that allow all innovators to thrive through pro-competitive practices and the reinforcement of fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing terms for standard-essential patents.