FRAND and other requirements in China's Announcement on Releasing (Provisional) Administration Regulations of National Standards Involving Patents

Abstract

New measures took effect on 1 January 2014 governing national standards involving patents in China. These measures have noteworthy implications for businesses, given that they include reporting requirements that add to uncertainty and therefore the risk of non-compliance; they include other clearer reporting requirements that raise compliance costs; they specify parameters of patent licensing, including FRAND terms, for voluntary national standards; they allow discretion in determining the necessity of suspending and revising voluntary national standards when patent licensing arrangements are not finalized; they mandate patent licensing for compulsory national standards and also provide some transparency in national standards development and reporting.