Scholarship (ICLE)
Licensing Negotiation Groups: The New Antitrust Kid on the SEPs Block
European Competition Journal
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ABSTRACT
The European approach to standard essential patent (SEP) licensing increasingly resembles a form of therapeutic obstinacy. Even before the Draft Regulation was definitively withdrawn, a new issue had already taken centre stage in the policy debate. As part of the review of the Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation (TTBER) and the related Guidelines (TTGs), the European Commission decided to provide guidance on the competition law assessment of licensing negotiation groups (LNGs). Against this backdrop, the paper examines these implementers’ alliances under competition law and explores their implications within the current SEP licensing framework.