On Thursday 12 February, the European Commission requested a panel to rule on the legality of certain Chinese practices at the next meeting of the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) on 24 February.
These practices involve empowering Chinese courts to set worldwide licensing conditions (including royalty rates) for portfolios of standard essential patents (SEPs), which may contain EU patents, without the patent owners’ consent.
These SEPs protect technologies that enable the...