Recent Developments in Korean Antirust Cases Concerning FRAND-Encumbered Standard-Essential Patents

Abstract

In Korea, there have been four antitrust cases concerning the “fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory” (FRAND) related standard-essential patents (SEPs) in the last six years: (1) Seoul Central District Court’s decision in Samsung v. Apple (August 2012); (2) Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC)’s consent decision on Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia (August 2015); (3) Seoul High Court’s decision in Qualcomm v. KFTC (August 2012) pending in the Supreme Court; and (4) KFTC’s decision against Qualcomm (January 2017) pending in the Seoul High Court. This article addressed those cases, as well as some issues of Korean competition law in dealing with FRAND-encumbered SEPs.

Keywords: Antitrust, Competition, Korea, FRAND, SEP, Apple, Samsung, Qualcomm, Microsoft

JEL Classification: K21