The Watchful Waiting Strategy in Standard-Essential Patents: The Case of 5G Technology
研究了专利申请人如何通过提交与标准必要专利高度相似但不声明的专利来实施观望策略，利用主题建模和深度学习识别5G技术中的此类专利，为企业和政策制定者提供降低诉讼风险的启示。
In recent years, the relevance of communication technology has steadily been increasing. This technology is represented by technical standards as a means for faster technology diffusion and regulation. In turn, they are supported by standard-essential patents (SEPs) that protect inventions related to the standard and can be licensed as a pool. However, there is no standard-essentiality check, which induces patent applicants to declare either too many or too few patents as standard-essential. In this study we address the latter deficiency and define a new patent strategy, namely the watchful waiting strategy. Here, patent applicants file patents that are very similar to SEPs without subsequently declaring them standard-essential. We use topic modeling and deep learning to assess SEPs and non-standard-essential patents of 5G technology for standard-essentiality. The results provide information on the type of applicants holding watchful waiting patents. This entails several implications for companies, patent attorneys, and researchers, as the process model presented for identifying watchful waiting patents reduces the risk of patent litigation for companies wishing to use the standard. At the same time, rethinking the current process of SEP declaration opens up new avenues for policy makers and standard-setting organizations.