IPWatchdog: Bipartisan Groups of Administration Officials, Senators, Voice Opposition to New Joint Policy Statement on SEPs by Aileen McDermott
Friday, February 4, marked the deadline for submission of comments on the latest iteration of the Joint Department of Justice (DOJ)-U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)-National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Policy Statement on Remedies for Standards-Essential Patents Subject to Voluntary FRAND Commitments. The request for comments came on the heels of President Joe Biden’s July 2021 Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy, which asked the three agencies to review the 2019 statement.
In perhaps one of the most surprising submissions, a bipartisan group of former presidential administration officials jointly commented that the new version of the Policy Statement is “disconnected from the realities of SEP licensing,” “unbalanced,” and would “disadvantage the United States on the global stage.”
The joint comments were made by an unlikely team: Christine A. Varney, former Assistant Attorney General for DOJ Antitrust under President Barack Obama; Makan Delrahim, former Assistant Attorney General for DOJ Antitrust under President Donald J. Trump; David J. Kappos, former Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO under President Barack Obama; Michelle K. Lee, former Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO under President Barack Obama; Andrei Iancu, former Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO under President Donald J. Trump; Patrick D. Gallagher, Ph.D., former Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and Director of NIST under President Barack Obama; Willie E. May, Ph.D., former Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and Director of NIST under President Barack Obama; and Walter G. Copan, Ph.D., former Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and Director of NIST under President Donald J. Trump.