A patent ambush occurs when a member of a standard-setting organization withholds information, during participation in development and setting a standard, about a patent that the member or the member's company owns, has pending, or intends to file, which is relevant to the standard, and subsequently the company asserts that a patent is infringed by use of the standard as adopted.[1][2]
Standards-setting organizations, such as the IEEE[3] and ANSI, typically require each member of their committees engaged in standard setting to file a letter with the organization stating either that the member does not know of any patents of their company relevant to the standard or else identifying those patents about which they know. When the organization is advised of relevant patents, often it will either seek to use a different technology for the standard or obtain a commitment from the patent owner that it will license users of the standard on fair reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.
Once the proposed standard has been adopted, companies wishing to implement the standard may be forced to pay substantial royalties to the patent holder,[1] creating barriers to entry that distort competition within the market.[4] Consequently, the practice has been considered to be in breach of antitrust or competition law in the United States[5] and the European Union[2] and has resulted in several lawsuits and other actions.
In the United States, a patent ambush may involve the filing of a continuation application with claims targeting a standard[6] or the exploitation of a submarine patent, that is, a patent application which has been filed but has not yet been made public years after the filing.[7]
^ ab"Telecom standards face patent ambush threat". ZDNet. 2005-06-15. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2007-08-30.
^ ab"Antitrust: Commission confirms sending a Statement of Objections to Rambus". European Commission. 2007-08-23. Retrieved 2007-08-30.
^See IEEE Standards Association
^Matt Whipp (2005-12-12). "EC thwarts 'patent ambush' tactics". PC Pro. Archived from the original on 2013-12-02. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
^See, for example, FTC Challenges Patent Holder's Refusal to Meet Commitment to License Patents Covering 'Ethernet' Standard Used in Virtually All Personal Computers in U.S. (FTC press release about its suit against N-Data, 23 Jan. 2008); FTC Charges Unocal with Anticompetitive Conduct Related to Reformulated Gasoline: Complaint Alleges Company Gained Monopoly Power by Defrauding the California Air Resources Board and Industry Groups During Phase 2 Gasoline Rulemaking Archived 2009-01-19 at the Wayback Machine (FTC press release about its suit against Union Oil Co., 4 March 2003). See also Broadcom Corp. v. Qualcomm Inc. Archived 2010-10-11 at the Wayback Machine (4 Sept. 2007 opinion of Third Circuit holding that deceptive conduct in the standard-setting process can constitute actual or attempted monopolization).
^Herbert J. Hovenkamp, Patent Continuations, Patent Deception, and Standard Setting: the Rambus and Broadcom decisions, University of Iowa Legal Studies Research Paper (June 2008), page 6, first paragraph.
^Stacy Baird, "The Government at the Standards Bazaar", 18 Stanford Law & Policy Rev. 35, 82 n.138 (2007) (noting that "the risks of assault on a standards-setting proceeding are most notably that of the imposition of a "submarine patent" or of patent royalty "hold up" risks".
A patentambush occurs when a member of a standard-setting organization withholds information, during participation in development and setting a standard...
submarine patents are sometimes referred to as patent pirates. The phrase is occasionally used more generally for any patent used in patentambush. After...
standard can be complex. Patent ambush, a situation in which patents are withheld during development of a proposed standard Patent infringement, the commission...
This is a list of legal terms relating to patents and patent law. A patent is not a right to practice or use the invention claimed therein, but a territorial...
case is currently on appeal at the Seventh Circuit. PatentambushPatent map Patent pool Patent portfolio Tragedy of the anticommons Digital Opportunity...
In United States patent law, patent misuse is a patent holder's use of a patent to restrain trade beyond enforcing the exclusive rights that a lawfully...
existence of the patents which it later claimed were relevant to the adopted standard. This type of behavior is known as a "patentambush". Against this...
may be related or unrelated. Patent applications may also be regarded as included in a patent portfolio. Patentambush – when a member of a standard-setting...
8491417 French International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops were ambushed by Afghan Taliban insurgents, with heavy casualties, in the Uzbin Valley...
Synteni for patent infringement. The case was eventually settled with the parties cross-licensing their patents. PatentPatentambush Submarine patent ""What...
a business—as holders of any patents, and neither are listed as an inventor on any patent. In his cheque design patents, Canadian inventor Calin A. Sandru...
Wendell Hecht, Vice President of Water Integrity at the DEP, who holds the patent for only home water filter recommended by the DEP. Since it would take years...
Remington Model 8 in 1911. On October 16, 1900, John Browning was granted U.S. patent 659,786 for the rifle, which he then sold to Remington. Outside the U.S...
peace conference, but when the Iroquois arrived, the French had set an ambush and proceeded to slaughter and capture the Iroquois. A theraputic fib is...
confront one another ahead of their title match which would end in a failed ambush by JD McDonagh. It was during his entrance that Jey adopted the fireflies...
involved in the company and registered the trademark Rimowa at the Reich Patent Office in Berlin. "Rimowa" is an acronym for Richard Morszeck Warenzeichen...
Four #1, it is shown that a Skrull assumed Reed's form to successfully ambush and capture Sue Richards, to facilitate an attack on the Fantastic Four's...
from Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company, which had secured an exclusive concession to manufacture the BAR under Browning's patents (Browning's...
temporary paralysis resulting from a cerebral hemorrhage (aborting his planned ambush interview of Courtney Love), but he quickly recovered. On December 6, 2015...
(110 yd) within a 60° arc in front of the device. It is used primarily in ambushes and as an anti-infiltration device against enemy infantry. It is also used...
Archived from the original on 2009-05-01. Retrieved 2011-01-29. "United States Patent and Trademark Office". Archived from the original on 2018-02-01. Retrieved...
Another early-WWI improvement introduced in 1915 was a muzzle booster, a patent-protected Vickers invention, which was designated Rückstossverstärker 08...
Global Information