中国专利保护协会代表会员企业在国际发声
日前，美国司法部、美国专利与商标局、美国国家标准与技术研究所等三部门就2021年FRAND政策声明草案意见征集中，中国专利保护协会代表部分会员企业提交了评论。在美方已公开的167份评论中，这是唯一的中国声音。
作为专利领域中国产业界的代表，中国专利保护协会一直以来持续关注国内外知识产权政策变动，收集并完善中国创新主体的宝贵意见建议，将中国创新主体的声音传递到国内、国际有关部门，切实发挥“企业诉求的反映者”的作用。感谢会员企业对我们的信任，希望有更多的中国企业更主动地参与国际IP规则议定。
以下为此次意见反馈中我们向美方提交的评论原文。
RE: Draft Policy Statement on Licensing Negotiations and Remedies for Standards-Essential Patents Subject to Voluntary F/RAND Commitments
回复：关于受自愿F/RAND承诺约束的标准基本专利许可谈判和救济措施的政策声明草案
Dear Attorney General Garland and Assistant Attorney General Kanter:
尊敬的总检察长加兰和助理总检察长坎特：
Founded in October, 2003. Patent Protection Association of China (PPAC for short) is a nation-wide, professional and non-Profit organization registered in the People’s Republic of China. With more than 400 corporate members, PPAC is committed to becoming a representative of corporate demands, a facilitator of intellectual property rights, and a promoter of innovation. PPAC also has communicates and cooperates with relevant overseas institutions and organizations to promote international exchanges and cooperation. The members of PPAC includes patent owners, as well as potential licensees for standards-essential patents (SEP).
中国专利保护协会是在中华人民共和国注册的全国性、专业性、非营利性社会团体，于2003年10月在北京成立。协会现有企业会员400余家，致力于成为企业诉求的反映者、知识产权的宣传者以及创新的推动者。协会积极开展与境外相关机构团体的友好往来，促进国际交流与合作。协会的会员包括标准必要专利的专利权人，也包括标准必要专利的潜在被许可人。
In regard to the Draft Policy Statement on Licensing Negotiations and Remedies for Standards-Essential Patents Subject to Voluntary F/RAND Commitments issued on December 6. 2021 (hereinafter referred to as the 2021 Draft Policy Statement) by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in collaboration with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), PPAC would like to make some comments as follows for reference on behalf of some of our corporate members.
针对司法部（DOJ）、美国专利商标局（USPTO）和国家标准与技术研究所（NIST）于2021年12月6日发布的《受自愿FRAND承诺约束的标准基本专利许可谈判和救济措施的政策声明草案》（以下简称2021年政策声明草案），我们代表部分会员企业反馈如下意见供参考。
The patent system promotes innovation and economic growth by providing incentives to inventors to apply their knowledge, undertake risks, and make continuous investments in research and development. Reliable, predictable, high-quality patent rights provide owners and the public confidence in the patent system, and promote vigorous, dynamic competition to the benefit of consumers. The 2021 Draft Policy Statement fully embodies the purpose stemming from the patent system with regard to innovation stimulation, competition promotion and benefits accomplishment, reflects a sincere effort to achieve a reasonable balance, and maintains the same effect against excessive use of SEP by patent holders and reverse holdup by potential licensees. In comparISOn, the Policy Statement on Remedies for Standards-Essential Patents Subject to Voluntary F/RAND Commitments issued on December 19. 2019 (hereinafter referred to as the 2019 Policy Statement) gave excessive concerns over reverse holdup at a low royalty rate by potential implementers, and unilaterally focused on that injunctive relief is also optional for SEP, aggravating the holdup of potential licensees at vulnerable positions. We believe that the 2021 Draft Policy Statement will reach a more reasonable balance between patent holders and implementers than the 2019 policy statement. Of particular concern, the 2021 Draft Policy Statement proposes considerations and procedural rules for relief for SEP subjected to F/RAND commitments, and recommends a procedural framework for a good-faith negotiation between a patent holder and a potential implementer. We believe that the 2019 policy statement should be revised. We welcome the 2021 Draft Policy Statement.
专利制度旨在激励发明人应用其知识、承担风险、持续投资来推动创新和经济增长，可靠的、可预测的、高质量的专利权能塑造专利权人和社会公众对专利制度的信心，推动充满活力的创新，增加消费者的福祉。2021年政策声明草案充分体现了专利制度激励创新、促进竞争、增加福祉的宗旨，反映了为达成合理的平衡而做出的真诚努力，对专利持有人过度利用SEP和潜在被许可人反向专利劫持保持了同样的效果。相比较来说，2019年12月19日发布的《关于受F/RAND承诺约束的标准基本专利救济措施的政策声明》（以下简称2019年政策声明）过多地关注了潜在被许可人以低许可费率反向劫持，片面强调了禁令救济对于SEP也是可选的，使得处于弱势地位的潜在被许可人被劫持的情况加重。我们认为，2021年政策声明草案相比于2019年政策声明在专利持有人和实施者之间取得了更加合理的平衡。特别值得关注的是，2021年政策声明草案提出了针对F/RAND承诺下SEP救济的考量因素和程序规则，推荐了专利持有人和潜在实施人之间善意谈判的程序框架。我们认为，2019年政策声明应当被修订。我们对2021年政策声明草案表示欢迎。
The 2021 Draft Policy Statement is more rational to injunctive relief, with an emphasis that SEP holders will deviate from the original intent of their F/RAND commitments in case of an active seek for injunctive relief rather than engagement in good-faith licensing negotiations. Injunctive relief is indeed a key factor in licensing negotiations for SEP patents and is involved in most SEP negotiations. Patent holders may use the injunction as a weapon in their negotiations, who will implicitly or explicitly mention the injunction option when they try to impose an unreasonable proposal. Some patent holders may treat the injunctive relief as an ultimatum to implementers when negotiations fail out of expectation. Of course, the injunctive relief should also be discussed under the framework of antitrust law, which otherwise would impair competition and benefits of American innovators and the public. The 2021 Draft Policy Statement would be more helpful to facilitate negotiations if it could expose clearer information assisting patent holders and potential implementers in predicting whether their behavioral patterns conform to the rules of good-faith negotiations.
2021年政策声明对禁令救济的态度更加理性，强调如果SEP权利人积极寻求禁令救济而不是开展善意许可谈判，将会背离其FRAND承诺的初衷。禁令救济确实是SEP专利许可谈判中的一个重要因素，大部分关于SEP的谈判中会有所涉及。专利持有人在谈判中会以禁令为武器，当他们试图强加一项不合理的提议时，他们会不时默示或明确地提及禁令选项。当谈判未按预期进行时，部分专利持有人会将禁令救济视为给实施者的最后通牒。当然，禁令救济还应当在反垄断法的框架下进行讨论，否则有可能损害竞争、损害美国创新者和社会公众的福祉。如果2021年政策声明草案能给出更加明确的信息以帮助专利持有人和潜在实施者预判其行为模式是否符合诚信谈判规则，将更有利于促进谈判。
Good Faith appeared many times in the 2021 Draft Policy Statement, with the intention of guiding an SEP holder and a potential licensee to actively participate in good-faith licensing negotiations and calling for abandonment of opportunistic behaviors that harm the standards ecosystem. For the purpose of efficient SEP licensing negotiations, patent holders should fulfill their F/RAND commitments and provide a list of their license-related patents, including patent status, conditions about patent overlapped with other patent pools, patent-related litigation and IPR status, etc. The patent holders should also provide proof or basis showing that their patents are genuine SEP, as well as necessary supporting materials for royalty rate calculation.
2021年政策声明中多次出现Good Faith，引导SEP权利人和潜在被许可人积极参与善意许可谈判，呼吁放弃损害标准化生态的投机行为。为提升SEP谈判效率，专利持有人应满足其F/RAND承诺并提供其持有的与许可相关的专利清单，包括专利的有效状态，与其他专利池重叠的专利情况，专利涉及的诉讼和IPR状况等。专利持有人也应提供其专利为真实SEP的证明或者依据，以及计算费率的必要支持材料。
The 2021 Draft Policy Statement proposes operational guidelines for an SEP licensing negotiation, where contents of a warning letter issued by an SEP holder, a reply approach of a potential licensee, specific contents of the SEP right holder’s reply and other procedural rules have been stipulated. These guidelines could promote the good-faith F/RAND license negotiation. We suggest that: (a) a clarification should be made on the framework being recommended according to a specific negotiation situation; (b) a clarification or example should be made on the standards of the “good-faith negotiation” and the “F/RAND Counteroffer”; and (c) appropriate additions should be made with regard to Licensor’s obligations, e.g., providing a full list of patents to ensure that expired patents and patents overlapped with other patent pools are excluded or specified, and providing claim charts or analysis report of patents and relevant standards with regard to random sampling patents of no less than 50% of the patent families in the patent list issued by an independent third party, and disclosing the relevant F/RAND statements, F/RAND quotations, and comparable agreements that have been signed when these can be disclosed.
2021年政策声明提出了SEP许可谈判的操作指引。对SEP权利人发出的警告函的内容、潜在被许可人的回复方式、SEP权利人再次答复的具体内容等程序规则做了规定，这些指引能够促进诚信F/RAND许可谈判。我们建议：（a）明确该框架应根据谈判具体情形推荐使用;（b）明晰“good-faith negotiation”以及“FRAND Counter offer”的标准；（c）适当增加Licensor的义务内容，如提供完整的专利清单，确保排除或者明示已经过期的专利、与其他专利池重复的专利，要求独立第三方出具的专利清单中至少包括超过50%的专利族的随机抽样专利，并提供这些专利与相关标准的比对报告，披露相关F/RAND声明、F/RAND报价以及已经签订的可被公开的可比协议等。
The 2021 Draft Policy Statement newly adds comments on intellectual property policies from standard-setting organizations (SSOs), and emphasizes that the SSOs’ intellectual property policies are conducive to the sound development of the standards ecosystem. If the SSOs improve the transparency of SEP patents when formulating intellectual property policies, the expectation gap of patent holders and potential implementers could be shorten, the negotiation progress could be sped up and the negotiation costs can be reduced. From this point of view, the SSOs should be promoted to disclose more SEP information, but the 2021 Draft Policy Statement does not seem to play that role.
2021年政策声明新增了关于标准化组织的知识产权政策的评论，强调标准化组织的知识产权政策有利于标准化生态的良好发展。标准化组织在制定知识产权政策时如果提高SEP专利的透明度，可以拉近专利持有人和潜在实施者的心理预期，加快谈判进度，降低谈判成本。从这个意义上讲，应当促进标准化组织公开SEP信息，但是2021年政策声明草案似乎并没有起到这个作用。
The 2021 Draft Policy Statement discusses factual patterns designed to indicate when potential licensees are willing or unwilling to obtain F/RAND licenses. We recommend that the draft policy statement could be exhaustive on “willing” and “unwilling”, and further provide examples regarding what constitutes a “willing” situation or an “unwilling” situation. For example, if an SEP holder brings an infringement suit or a counter suit without any negotiation, this should be deemed as an “unwilling” situation. We recommend that the draft policy statement should be enumerative on “acts in bad faith” or give a case explanation thereto for clearer guidance.
2021年政策声明讨论了旨在表明潜在被许可人何时愿意或不愿意获得F/RAND许可证的事实模式。我们建议政策声明可以对“不愿意”和“不能”进行穷举，进一步提供案例说明什么情况下构成“愿意”或“不愿意”。例如，SEP持有人如未经协商即提起侵权或反诉讼案件应视为“不愿意”。建议对“恶意行为”进行列举或者案例解释，以提供更加清晰的指导。
If resources or information are provided or developed by the U.S. government on a fair basis, it will help companies to get knowledge of the boundaries of F/RAND licensing, and to predict whether both parties’ behaviors meet the requirement of F/RAND good-faith negotiation, thereby conducive to improving negotiation efficiency. If in a desire to develop such resources or information platforms, attention should be paid to the comprehensiveness and accuracy of the information, as well as limitations and exemptions of confidentiality obligations.
如果在公平的基础上，由美国政府提供和开发资源或者信息，有助于让企业明确F/RAND许可界限，有助于让参与者预测其行为是否F/RAND善意谈判的要求,有助于提升谈判效率。如果开发此类资源或者信息平台，应当注意信息的全面性、准确性，以及保密义务的限制和豁免等因素。
The above comments do not represent the opinions of all PPAC members. The members of PPAC may also provide their own comments.
以上评论不代表协会全体会员的意见。协会会员也可能提供自己的观点。
Patent Protection Association of China
中国专利保护协会
January 29. 2022
2022年1月29日
