An essential patent or standard-essential patent (SEP) is a patent that claims an invention that must be used to comply with a technical standard. Standard-setting organizations (SSOs) normally require their members to agree to license their essential patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. Determining which patents are essential to a particular standard can be complex.
See also Patent ambush, a situation in which patents are withheld during development of a proposed standard Patent infringement, the commission of a prohibited act with respect to a patented invention Patent thicket, a negatively connoted term for an overlapping set of patent rights Orange-Book-Standard, a German decision on the interaction between patent law and technical standards Standardization, the process of creating technical standards
References
Further reading and viewing "Potential Antitrust Liability Based on a Patent Owner's Manipulation of Industry Standard Setting", Proceedings of ABA Antitrust Section Spring Meeting (2003) by Janice M. Mueller. "Patent Misuse Through the Capture of Industry Standards", 17 Berkeley Tech. L.J. 623 (2002) by Janice M. Mueller.