The Standard Essential Patent Development Report (2024) has been officially released

（Translated by Liu Peiyu）

In a period marked by unprecedented technological innovation worldwide, the new wave of technological revolution and industrial transformation is reshaping the global innovation landscape. This has highlighted the growing importance of the coordinated development of two strategic resources — Standards and Patents. As a product of the deep integration of these two elements, Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) have emerged as a strategic focus for international organizations and major countries (or regions). SEPs are now at the heart of competition in key technological, market, and industrial sectors.

To better implement strategies contained in national overarching documents such as "The Outline of the National Innovation-Driven Development Strategy" "The National Standardization Development Outline" "The Outline for Building an Intellectual Property Powerhouse (2021-2035)" and "The Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Accelerating the Construction of a Unified National Market," the China National Institute of Standardization (CNIS) has leveraged its role as a national-level standardization research institution. Based on long-term observations and analysis of SEP policies and practices internationally, domestically, and abroad, as well as data mining from over 3 million standards in the CNIS database, CNIS has compiled the "Standard Essential Patent Development Report (2024)" (referred to as "the Report").

The Report is intended for government departments, social organizations, academic institutions, research organizations, businesses, and professionals involved in SEP-related work. It provides an in-depth analysis of key SEP policies, cases, and data from both domestic and international perspectives in recent years. The Report seeks to comprehensively, systematically, and objectively showcase the overall development trends of SEPs to enhance the understanding of SEP issues among all relevant stakeholders. The ultimate goal is to promote better mastery of SEP-related theories and policies, integrate cutting-edge, applicable technological innovations into standards in a timely manner, strengthen intellectual property protection during the standard-setting process, and facilitate the industrialization and application of innovative achievements, thus fostering the growth of new productive forces.

The Report consists of six main sections, which are summarized as follows:

1. Clarification of SEP Concept and Stakeholder Behavior: This section defines the concept of SEPs from the perspective of innovation commercialization and market activities. It also outlines stakeholder behaviors throughout the SEP lifecycle, from SEP formation to licensing negotiations and dispute resolution, laying the foundation for subsequent sections.

2. Overview of International Organizations' SEP Policies and Practices: This section highlights the SEP strategies of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), covering guiding principles, current practices, and strategic directions. It also tracks the policy dynamics of three major international standards organizations — the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) — through statistical analyses of SEP data across various dimensions, including overall development, national coverage and coverage domain.

3. Analysis of SEP Policies in Major Countries (or Regions): This section outlines the latest regulations, administrative, and judicial developments related to SEPs in the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, and other major countries (or regions). It also presents a policy evolution chart, showcasing governance trends and development directions.

4. Overview of New Trends in SEP Licensing Practices and Dispute Resolution: Drawing from licensing practices and dispute resolution cases in fields such as wireless communications and audio-visual technologies, this section explains new trends, including the diversification of SEP licensing entities, the widening scope of practice coverage, and the globalization of dispute resolution.

5. Summary of China's SEP Policies and Practices: This section introduces China’s key policy documents related to SEPs, summarizes China’s institutional arrangements across various SEP stages, and provides a quantitative analysis of the specific circumstances and trends regarding patents involved in national and group standards in China.

6. Outlook on empowerment of new quality productivity through standard patent collaborative innovation: Based on relevant analyses, this section identifies five development trends for SEPs and offers recommendations for government departments, market entities, and research institutions to strengthen their SEP-related efforts.

The CNIS will continue to monitor the latest SEP developments and collaborate with various stakeholders to deepen research and update its annual reports, contributing to the overall development of SEPs.

The policies and cases cited in the Report are sourced from publicly available official or authoritative websites. The webpage links attached to the Report were last accessed on September 22, 2024 . The basic data is sourced from the databases of the three major international standard-setting organizations—ISO, IEC, and ITU—as well as the official database of the CNIS. The data cutoff date is December 31, 2023. As there may be issues of bulk disclosure, incomplete disclosure, or over-disclosure during the SEP information disclosure process, resulting in potential discrepancies between statistical results and actual circumstances, readers are encouraged to provide corrections if any inaccuracies are found.