NEWS ALERT: IEEE gamesmanship over FRAND (again)

A report from today’s IEEE Patent Committee (PatCom) meeting suggests IEEE is considering the unprecedented step of amending FRAND commitments after they were submitted. While I can’t imagine how such action is possible, I can imagine the 3rd party litigation by those who relied on these assurances when they discover IEEE LOAs are written on ice.

Here is the proposed recommendation:

6.3.6 Interaction of Accepted LOAs under different versions of the IEEE SA patent policy

Where there is one Submitter of an Accepted LOA under the version of the IEEE SA Standards Board Bylaws as they existed from 15 March 2015 through 31 December 2022 [“2015 policy”] and another Submitter of an Accepted LOA for the same IEEE standard under either a subsequent policy or using the Custom LOA Form Dated 13 June 2019 – Limited, then in that specific circumstance, and except as otherwise not permitted by law, the Submitter under the 2015 policy may choose, with respect to the ability to seek a Prohibitive Order against the Submitter of the other Accepted LOA, to have its Accepted LOA governed by the same patent policy provisions as govern the other Submitter’s Accepted LOA as to the right to seek a Prohibitive Order.