ABSTRACT
This paper seeks to understand the scope and meaning of standard essential patents and the current peak in their insurgence in patent protection applications. Further, the author seeks to understand the distinction between these patents marked as standard and essential from the original patents granted for an innovative product or a non-obvious and equally utilitarian process. The benchmarks for the grant of a patent, which is standard essential in nature, and the procedure to acquire one shall also be covered in elaboration during the present research paper. In addition, a comprehensive analysis- critique shall be done for these up-and-coming categories of patents with respect to the provisions of the Competition Law in the nation-state of India to apprehend in a prodigious detail-oriented manner whether these align with the fair-trade practice and competitive laws in India and that they don’t give rise to a market that is anti-competitive or has a monopolistic coloration attached to it. In continuance of the research and comprehension process, the paper shall seek to understand the interplay between the grant and holding the exclusive right of Standard Essential Patents by the patentee, balanced with the duty of the said patentee with respect to the provisions of Compulsory Licensing per se the FRAND terms.
Keywords- Standard Essential Patents, India, Competition Law, FRANDS[1].
[1] Stands for Free, reasonable and non-discriminatory royalties (abbreviated as FRAND/ FRANDS throughout the paper).