Litigation of Standard-Essential Patents in Europe: A Comparative Analysis
Jorge Contreras, Fabian Gaessler, Christian Helmers, and Brian Love
Abstract
Despite the significance of patent litigation in the EU and the looming structural overhaul of the European patent litigation system, there has been comparatively little empirical or statistical analysis of European patent cases across member states. This absence has largely been due to the lack of harmonized case-level data across European jurisdictions. Over the past few years, however, researchers in Europe have developed patent litigation databases that have enabled robust quantitative analysis. As a result, comparative empirical studies have recently been published concerning European patent litigation overall, as well as litigation by so-called non-practicing entities (NPEs). The present study extends this work to the important area of litigation relating to standards-essential patents (SEPs) in the EU. We find that that the assertion of SEPs has occurring in Europe at significant levels, and that PAEs are playing a large role in this activity.