AAI Letter to Senators Klobuchar and Lee on Standard Essential Patent Disputes and Antitrust Law

In a letter to Senators Klobuchar and Lee, the AAI applauded the decision of the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights of the Senate Judiciary Committee, under their leadership, to hold a hearing on Standard Essential Patent Disputes and Antitrust Law. The AAI has, on several occasions over the past two years, urged the enforcement agencies, courts and Congress to address anticompetitive abuses of a vastly proliferating array of standard essential patents (SEPs) and, in particular, the many ways in which SEP owners evade weak and ineffectual patent policies of standard-setting organizations. These SEP owners thereby acquire market power over major parts of the information technology and communications sectors and defeat the whole purpose of open standards efforts.