The EU SEP Regulation - dead or alive?

Published

Feb 12 2025

Reading Time

2 minutes

Written By

Of Counsel
UK

I am a British and European patent attorney in our Intellectual Property group in London. I am involved with UK patent infringement actions relating to standard essential patents (SEPs), FRAND setting litigation and globally coordinated litigation, as well as SEP essentiality reviews and valuation. I am also authorised to represent clients before the Unified Patent Court (UPC) that opened in Europe in June 2023.

Practices

Intellectual Property

Regions

Central and Eastern Europe

Draft EU SEP Regulation withdrawal proposed

In a document issued by the European Commission (EC) on 11 February 2025, the EC indicated that it proposes the withdrawal of its proposal for a regulation on standard essential patents (SEPs).

The document relates to the EC's work programme for 2025. The reasons given for withdrawal are "no foreseeable agreement - the Commission will assess whether another proposal should be tabled or another approach should be taken". (See Item 17 in Annex IV, which relates to 'Withdrawals', for the draft SEP regulation.)

The proposal for a EU SEP regulation has been a matter of great debate since it issued nearly two years ago (see our earlier articles for more on this), with questions being raised about the legality of the proposal as well as doubts over where all the evaluators and conciliators were going to be found. Also, the timing was a little surprising, being issued on the eve of the opening of the EU's Unified Patent Court.

The European Parliament and the Council may now communicate their views, before the Commission makes a decision on whether to proceed with the indicated withdrawal (with a decision expected within six months). Given September 2024's EC report, which concluded that regulation was inhibiting growth in the EU, it seems unlikely that the EC will be proposing an alternative in the immediate future. But we wait to see if Parliament and the Council agrees.