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November 25, 2020 06:05 pm

Vestager Seeks Patents Overhaul Amid Court Fights Over Cars

The European Union will seek to overhaul the system for key patents such as those that have fueled legal battles between car makers and technology companies, the EU's technology chief said Wednesday. From a report: Margrethe Vestager promised that regulators will weigh reforms to improve the framework in place for so-called standard-essential patents and work on industry-led initiatives "to reduce frictions and litigation." The EU move could help avoid repeats of lengthy legal battles such as Nokia Oyj's effort to get Daimler AG to pay more for mobile technology used in cars. While Daimler wants the underlying patents be licensed to its various component suppliers, Nokia wants to charge per car at a much higher price. Companies often seek court help to determine whether certain technology patents are valid and how much should be paid for licensing technology seen as essential for an industry. The EU has frequently been asked to weigh in on how much is fair for key technology. "There's quite a lot of litigation back and forth and in the short-term we would want to push for industry to figure out how to set up foras to enable discussions and mediation so that maybe to a bigger degree it can be solved out of court," Vestager said. The current system to set up so-called standard essential patents deemed key to certain technology "is not very transparent," she said. "This is why we will consider a very close consultation with anyone involved whether we should set up a third-party essential 'reality check' so someone outside of your business" can rule on whether a patent is really important or not.

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