Antitrust Regulation On The Abuse Of Injunction Relief For SEPs

SEPs are the product of the integration of technical standards and patents,aiming to solve the problems of interconnection and device compatibility in the field of communication through the promotion of technical standards,but this kind of thing with both public and private attributes brings challenges to the balance and trade-off between public welfare and private interest protection.In reality,SEP owners use their powerful market power to abuse injunctive relief in order to obtain unfair licensing conditions such as high license fees,with the intention of squeezing out the market of patent implementers,which will not only reduce market competition and hinder the promotion of technical standards,but also reduce consumer welfare and social welfare brought about by innovation,contrary to the original intention of technology promotion.In view of this,this article starts from the topic of "abuse of SEP injunction relief",focuses on the legal concept and value of the balance of interests behind it,and attempts to solve the practical problem of whether and how the abuse of SEP injunction relief should be regulated by reference to the Antitrust Law.Unlike general patent infringement,which only involves the interests of the private parties of the patent licensors,the regulation of SEP injunction relief abuse actually balances the public interest behind the promotion of technical standards and the private interests of the SEP owner,traditional private law means cannot provide effective protection for the public interest,and the standardization organization that builds the SEP trading platform cannot do anything about it,while the Antitrust Law can regulate the strong market position of the SEP owner through multiple means to provide protection for the public interest.Therefore,this paper considers the abuse of SEP injunction relief from the perspective of antitrust,and establishes an analytical framework for the abuse of SEP injunction relief in antitrust regulations from three aspects: the definition of the relevant market,the determination of the dominant market position,and the determination of the abuse of the injunction by the SEP owner.Then,on this basis,suggestions are put forward on the optimization of the system for the abuse of standard essential patent injunction relief from the aspects of the antitrust system,the standard essential patent injunction relief abuse system itself and the relevant supporting systems,in order to provide protection for the public interest in the field of Antitrust Law.