Finding An Efficiency-Oriented Approach to Scrutinise the Essentiality of SEPs : A Survey

Over the years, the debate surrounding standard essential patents (SEPs) has focused mainly on the economic and legal meanings of FRAND commitments. However, the assessment of SEPs’ true essentiality is a topic that has gained significant interest among policy makers. As the European Commission is expected to deliver a legislative proposal to promote an efficient and sustainable SEP licensing ecosystem, this paper aims to provide a review of the literature on different mechanisms that have been proposed to determine the essentiality of a patent. Indeed, whilst any policy intervention stems from the need to ensure a reasonable balance among accuracy, transparency, and cost of the essentiality checks, the available approaches score differently in terms of their efficiency