Nine members of the European Parliament today asked EU executives to “reinstate” the proposed regulation for standard-essential patents. The controversial regulation, designed to improve licensing transparency, was withdrawn by the European Commission last week from its work program for the coming year. The commission will consider the parliament’s views, a spokesperson said. Lawmakers may take next steps to request further justification for the decision.
A group of nine lawmakers in the European Parliament are urging EU executives to bring back an axed draft regulation on standard-essential patents, or SEPs, in a letter sent today.The letter is addressed to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Commissioner Stéphane Séjourné, who oversees industry and internal market, and is signed by some lawmakers who were involved in drafting parliament’s position on the SEP regulation, which was finalized in February last year.
“The surprising and incomprehensible intention of the commission to withdraw the proposal is contrary to that of the democratically elected representatives of European citizens,” the letter said (see here), asking to “reinstate the proposal.”
Next steps being considered include requesting an invitation for a hearing with Séjourné, at a parliament committee for further justification for the withdrawal, MLex understands. The commission will also need to decide whether it will consider a different approach to market issues in SEP licensing.
— Commission work program —
The regulation, which was intended to increase transparency in the licensing process between technology patent holders and users, has seen divisive debate since it was proposed by the commission in 2023.
The commission included the SEP draft law in a list of dozens of other regulatory proposals to withdraw last week when it unveiled its 2025 work program, citing a lack of foreseeable agreement among lawmakers (see here).
“In line with the interinstitutional agreement on better law making, both the European Parliament and the Council can now express their views on the draft laws we intend to withdraw,” a commission spokesperson told MLex. “We will carefully take their views into account before deciding to withdraw the proposed draft laws.”
The commission may withdraw the regulation within the next six months as there is no foreseeable agreement among the co-legislators, the spokesperson said.
Cutting out the regulation “represents a severe setback for the operational predictability and future prospects of many companies — especially SMEs,” the letter states, “which would urgently benefit from a reform of the current opaque system characterized by information asymmetries and a lack of transparency.”
The letter is signed by MEP Tiemo Wölken, who represented the Socialist and Democrats party during the negotiations in the parliament.
"The commission's decision to withdraw the proposal on standard-essential patents at the last minute is a disaster for European SMEs and industry, as they now face the risk of unpredictable costs for any use of 5G and related technologies,” Wölken told MLex in a statement. “For many, this is an unacceptable risk.”
— Request for documents —
Wölken has gone a step further, and has requested access to documents to find out more about the meetings last week between Von der Leyen and US Vice President JD Vance.
Following last week’s AI Summit in Paris, Wölken referred to speculation that the decision to withdraw the SEP regulation as well the AI Liability Directive which featured on the commission's list of withdrawals came from Von der Leyen “at the request of the US Vice President,” the German lawmaker said in a statement shared with MLex.
“Decisions are taken alone and behind closed doors,” Wölken said. “If the rumors turned out to be true, it would amount to nothing less than an attack on the rights of EU citizens and the interests of our companies by the Commission President.”
The commission spokesperson disregarded the rumors as "nonsense."
“This analytical work started well in advance of the meeting [between Von der Leyen and Vance],” a commission spokesperson said. “The list with the proposals to be withdrawn was already circulated internally, on Feb. 10. At the same time, discussions on this proposal have been put on hold for quite some time.”
— More backlash —
The letter also carries a signature from German center-right MEP Marion Walsmann, who had led negotiations on behalf on the parliament.
Last week in response to the news of the withdrawal, she said in a statement: “It makes no sense at all to withdraw a text that brings much-needed transparency, demanded by the sector itself, and adopted by a large majority in parliament only last year.”
The lawmakers said in the letter they were surprised to see the withdrawal, considering the SEP regulation was scheduled for discussion among EU ministers on the council agenda at the end of February. As of now, the topic remains drafted for the agenda.
Other MEPs have also been vocal on the withdrawal of the proposal.
“I very much hope that the commission does not drop the issue altogether,” Markus Ferber, another center-right German lawmaker, told MLex in an e-mail. “Instead, the commission has to draw its lessons from the experiences with the initial SEP proposal and present a new proposal shortly.”
“Standard essential patents are key to get the connected economy going, yet patent holders often charge an arm and leg hampering Europe’s digitalization effort,” he added.
Small and medium-sized enterprises — as well as companies such as Apple, Google and Microsoft — argued the regulation would have provided legal certainty and reined in anticompetitive behavior by SEP holders (see here).
— Support for the withdrawal —
The draft regulation would have required companies such as Qualcomm, Ericsson and Nokia to register their SEPs publicly and undergo independent assessments of essentiality.
The proposal faced criticism from such patent holders, who argued it would harm European competitiveness. But organizations such as Nokia (see here) and Sisvel (see here) welcomed the commission’s decisions, arguing the regulation was flawed and would have been detrimental to innovation in Europe.
Earlier in February, leading judges and legal experts also raised concerns about jurisdictional conflicts between the Unified Patent Court and the General Court of the EU (see here).
Meanwhile, industries that depend on fair licensing agreements for a license to use SEPs in their products and services were largely in favor of the regulation (see here).
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