The European Patent Office released a research report in June 2026, analyzing 65 global judicial decisions on standard-essential patents from 2013 to 2025. The report indicates that in cases such as Unwired Planet v. Huawei in the UK and WiLAN v. Alcatel Lucent in the US, courts do not apply a uniform fixed rate when determining fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) royalties.
Industry players often mistakenly assume that standard-essential patents have a fixed market price or formula. However, this report confirms that FRAND royalty determination relies on case-by-case technical value assessments. If your products do not involve communication standards like 5G, Wi-Fi, or mainstream video codecs, this development has no impact on you. Only businesses whose hardware directly integrates these communication modules face these licensing risks.
For hardware R&D and procurement managers incorporating communication technologies, you should take two concrete actions. First, when signing procurement contracts with communication module suppliers, include non-infringement warranties and indemnification clauses to transfer patent risks. Second, if you receive a licensing demand, request the patent owner to provide comparable license agreements as a basis for calculating royalty rates, rather than accepting their initial offer.