Originally from Alternatives to the High Cost of Litigation

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Standards Setting Organizations, or SSOs, arose in various industries to promote interoperability and competition. Increasingly, standards have been established in the field of electronic communications by SSOs, such as the nonprofit Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a professional group that advocates for technology innovations, which has adopted standards for Wi-Fi, for example. 

The SSOs adopt standards, many of which incorporate technologies that are covered by patents—often patents owned by their members. Standards Essential Patents, or “SEPs,” are those that embody technology, and which must be practiced if one wishes to manufacture products that comply with the established standards.

SSOs generally require their members who may possess SEPs to license them on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory—“FRAND”—terms. Needless to say, such a broad commitment often leads to disagreements between patent holders and entities that the patent holders regard as practitioners of their patented technology, or, in common parlance, alleged infringers of the patents in question.

Recently, patent owners who are SSO members and whose patents have been alleged to be standards-essential have filed suit against entities attempting to comply with those standards, and sought injunctive relief.