Over-Declaration of Standard Essential Patents and Determinants of Essentiality
47 Pages Posted: 12 Apr 2017 Last revised: 28 Oct 2017
Date Written: October 27, 2017
Abstract
Not all Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) are actually essential – a phenomenon called over-declaration. IPR policies of standard-setting organizations require patent holders to declare any patents as SEPs that might be essential, without further SSO review or detailed compulsory declaration information. We analyze actual essentiality of 4G cellular standard SEPs. A declaration against a specific technical specification document of the standard is a strong predictor of essentiality. We also find that citations from and to SEPs declared to the same standard predict essentiality. Our results provide policy guidance and call for recognition of over-declaration in the economics literature.
Keywords: standards, standard essential patents, intellectual property, innovation
JEL Classification: K11, K21, L44, L51, L52
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation