Essential patent

An essential patent or standard-essential patent (SEP) is a patent that claims an invention that must be used to comply with a technical standard.^[1] Standard-setting organizations (SSOs) normally require their members to agree to license their essential patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.^[2] Determining which patents are essential to a particular standard can be complex.^[3]

See also

• Patent ambush, a situation in which patents are withheld during development of a proposed standard
• Patent infringement, the commission of a prohibited act with respect to a patented invention
• Patent thicket, a negatively connoted term for an overlapping set of patent rights
• Orange-Book-Standard, a German decision on the interaction between patent law and technical standards
• Standardization, the process of creating technical standards