Contribution to the Debate on SEPs: The SEPs Expert Group’s Report

Webinar, DEEP-IN Research Network | 15 July 17:30-19:00 CET

giovedì 15 Luglio 2021 ore 17:30 - 19:00

Contents
Speakers

On Thursday 15 July, the DEEP-IN NETWORK, powered by I-Com, organised the webinar “Contribution to the Debate on SEPs: The SEPs Expert Group’s Report”.

The event provided a forum for a fruitful dialogue among EU academics and experts on Standard Essential Patents (SEPs), which are a key contributor to industrial innovation and competitiveness. Patents provide incentives for research and development and facilitate knowledge transfers. Standards ensure the rapid diffusion of technologies and the interoperability between products. Many standards are based on patented technologies. Patents that are declared essential to a standard are likely to be particularly powerful patents and for this reason they are subject to the FRAND rules (Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory). Despite these rules, SEPs are the subject of many patent disputes at global level and several questions on their regulation remain.

The webinar, introduced by Mr. Nicita, Professor of Economic Policy, LUMSA, started from the recent Report published by European Commission Expert Group, and examined the policies adopted by Standard Developing Organizations (SDOs), as well as the contrasting economic theories that provide differing interpretations of FRAND licensing rules and the implications that derive from them. The debate also explored the transnational nature of patent disputes and the diffusion of anti-suit injunctions aimed at impeding a party to launch a controversy at another jurisdiction. The webinar was also an opportunity to analyze the difficulties on the application of FRAND rules in the context of the Internet of Things.

After the panel, moderated by Mr. Colangelo, scientific and managing Director, DEEP-IN NETWORK, the event continued with a live Q&A session.

Please find attached the event’s agenda.
Agenda-Webinar_Deep-In_SEP

Speakers

Speakers

Dirk AUER
University of Liege and ICLE

Bio

Dirk Auer is a Senior Fellow in Law & Economics at the International Center for Law & Economics, where his work focuses on the law and economics of antitrust, with an emphasis on innovation policy, digital markets and European competition law. He graduated from the Catholic University of Louvain in 2010, specializing in European law, and completed LLMs at the University of Chicago Law School and at the University of Liège. He also worked in the competition practices of two international law firms. Mr. Auer holds a PhD from the Liege Competition and Innovation Institute, where he teaches a module related to the Economics of Antitrust. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the EDHEC business school in France and at UCLouvain in Belgium.

Giuseppe COLANGELO
University of Basilicata and Stanford Law School

Bio

Giuseppe Colangelo is a Jean Monnet Professor of European Innovation Policy. He is also an Associate Professor of Law and Economics at University of Basilicata, and an Adjunct Professor of Markets, Regulation and Law, and of Legal Issues in Marketing at LUISS Guido Carli in Rome, Italy. He graduated in Law from LUISS Guido Carli, earned an LL.M. in Competition Law and Economics at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, and a Ph.D. in Law and Economics at LUISS Guido Carli. His primary research interests are related to innovation policy, intellectual property, competition policy, market regulation, and economic analysis of law. Giuseppe has been a Transatlantic Technology Law Forum (TTLF) Fellow since August 2017.

Olia KANEVSKAIA
Utrecht University

Bio

Olia Kanevskaia is a PhD Candidate at Tilburg Law and Economics Center (TILEC) and Tilburg Law School, the Netherlands. Her doctoral research focuses on the institutional aspects of technological standardization and the governance of industry-driven standards development bodies. She holds a Master’s degree in International and European Public Law from Tilburg University. During her doctoral study, Olia was a graduate intern at the Trade and Environment Division of the WTO and a Visiting Researcher at the Chair of Innovation Economics, Institute of Technology and Management, Technical University Berlin. She previously worked for Eurojust, Europol and TNT Legal Affairs/Sanctions Team.

Luke McDONAGH
London School of Economics

Bio

Luke McDonagh joined the Law Department of the London School of Economics (LSE) in 2020. He undertakes research in the areas of Intellectual Property Law and Constitutional Law. Prior to that he was a Senior Lecturer at City, University of London, a Lecturer at Cardiff University and LSE Fellow. McDonagh holds a PhD from Queen Mary, University of London, an LL.M from the London School of Economics (LSE) and a B.C.L. degree from NUI, Galway. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). He has published widely in respected journals including The Modern Law Review, Journal of Law and Society, Intellectual Property Quarterly and Civil Justice Quarterly. His work on patent litigation was cited in 2014 in the UK Parliament (House of Commons) and in a US Federal Trade Commission report on Patent assertion entities in 2016. In January 2019 he was invited to present his research on patent law before the JURI Committee of the European Parliament.

Antonio NICITA
University of Rome – LUMSA

Bio

Antonio Nicita is a lecturer in Economic Policy at the La Sapienza University of Rome, Department of Economics and Law. He is founder and secretary general of the Italian Society of Law and Economics and a member of the European Association of Law and Economics. He has been appointed Monitoring Trustee in cases of divestment by the European Commission, Directorate General of Competition, and economic expert at the Prime Minister’s Office, Unit for Simplification and Quality of Regulation and member of the Technical Secretariat of the Minister of Communications. He has been a consultant for the OECD for the preparation of the report on the state of regulation in Italy, 2009. Since 2001 he has carried out consultancy activities on the issues of regulation and competition in network industries for companies and institutions and has carried out technical consultancy in arbitrations and before courts.

Igor NIKOLIC
European University Institute

Bio

Igor Nikolic is a Senior Fellow at UCL Centre for Law, Economics and Society. He specialises and writes in the area of intellectual property rights and competition law, standard essential patents (SEPs), innovation and technical standardisation, competition law and digital economy. Igor completed his PhD at University College London on the licensing of Standard Essential Patents in the era of 5G and the Internet of Things. Igor has given presentations on SEPs at various international conferences (Oxford, Stanford, Tokyo) and published in academic journals. He also taught competition law at UCL, King’s College and University of Turin, worked on the report by BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre on ‘Digital Era Competition: a BRICS View’ and often works an external consultant on competition law and policy for the World Bank. Igor is also a qualified attorney at law advising on competition, intellectual property and regulatory issues.

Urška PETROVČIČ
Qualcomm

Bio

Urška Petrovčič is Director of Economic Strategy at Qualcomm. Prior to Qualcomm, she was a senior fellow at Hudson Institute and vice president of Criterion Economics. Her work at the Hudson institute focused on antitrust and intellectual property. Petrovčič holds a B.A. in law from the University of Ljubljana, a Master of Law and Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam, and an LL.M. and a Ph.D. in law from the European University Institute. Since 2017, Petrovčič has acted as the European Commission’s non-governmental adviser for the Unilateral Conduct Working Group of the International Competition Network. She has been a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Oslo.

Peter PICHT
University of Zurich

Bio

Peter Picht completed his Ph.D. (summa cum laude) at Munich University/the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, and holds a master degree from Yale Law School. He has been working, inter alia, with the EU Commission’s DG for Competition, as a Senior Research Fellow with the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, as well as with two international law firms. Picht now holds a chair for Commercial Law at the University of Zurich and is head of the University’s Center for Intellectual Property and Competition Law (CIPCO). His further affiliations include board memberships in the Academic Society for Competition Law (ASCOLA), the Association Européenne du Droit Èconomique (AIDE), and the Munich IP Dispute Resolution Forum. In 2019, he was a Visiting Professor at King’s College, London. Prof. Picht’s academic teaching and writing, as well as his counseling activity, focus on intellectual property law, competition law, international private and procedural law, in particular commercial arbitration (mainly IP and Competition), trusts and estates.