Government sets out Standard Essential Patents licensing reforms

The government has set out plans to improve Standard Essential Patents licensing for UK businesses, including exploring earlier resolution of court disputes and developing clearer negotiation guidance. The measures cover technologies used across connected industries, including telecommunications, which contributes more than £40bn annually to UK GDP.

The consultation response, published by GOV.UK Business, favours changes to information, guidance and dispute handling rather than a new standalone rate-setting procedure. A proposed Intellectual Property Office opinion service remains subject to feasibility work, with no decision yet on whether it will be established.

What happened

Ministers will work with the judiciary to examine whether an early determination of fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing terms could operate within existing court proceedings in England and Wales. The aim is to reduce the time and expense involved in resolving SEP disputes.

Known as FRAND, these are licensing terms that patent owners may undertake to offer when their technology becomes part of a technical standard. The proposed court pathway would address those terms earlier within proceedings, rather than through a separate rate-determination track.

The government will also develop FRAND licensing guidelines explaining how parties should engage with the court-based pathway and any future IPO-led opinion service. That work concerns the use of those mechanisms, alongside a separate commitment to practical guidance for negotiations.

To make relevant patents easier to identify, the IPO will develop a voluntary channel through which rightsholders can supply information about patents associated with technical standards. Industry will help shape the approach so businesses can use the information to identify SEPs relevant to their activities.

There will also be work on conduct before litigation. The package calls for clearer expectations of negotiating parties, better exchange of information before legal action and more prominent signposting to existing alternative dispute resolution services.

Practical guidance on good-faith licensing negotiations will be developed with industry. It is intended particularly for businesses without extensive experience of SEP licensing, rather than only companies with established patent teams and regular involvement in negotiations.

The background

SEPs protect inventions needed to implement technical standards. Those standards allow products and services to work together, communicate and connect across national markets, making the patents relevant to businesses well beyond the telecommunications industry.

The technologies covered include smartphones, Wi-Fi, connected vehicles, medical technology and advanced manufacturing. Businesses bringing products in these areas to market may therefore need to navigate licensing arrangements for inventions embedded in the standards they use.

The government expects the system to become more important as the number of declared SEPs grows worldwide. Emerging standards for 6G and artificial intelligence are part of that trend, while its response also identifies quantum technology, advanced connectivity and semiconductors as areas of future significance.

The consultation ran from 15 July to 7 October 2025 and attracted 93 responses. Contributors included businesses, representative organisations, legal specialists, academics and others with direct experience of licensing these patents.

It examined whether the system worked efficiently for UK companies, with particular attention to small and medium-sized enterprises. Questions covered transparency over pricing and essentiality, the length of negotiations and the scope for resolving disputes more quickly.

The IPO already provides guidance through its SEP Resource Hub, launched in July 2024. The new package includes expanding that resource to give businesses access to more practical licensing information and support.

The work also sits alongside the government's digital standards strategy for 2026 to 2030. That policy addresses the economic role of digital standards and the UK's participation in developing international standards that influence future technologies and markets.

What people are saying

Respondents generally supported the consultation's objectives, but did not agree on the extent of the problems or the best response. Views also differed on whether government intervention was justified, helping explain the decision to pursue targeted measures rather than all the options considered.

IPO chief executive Adam Williams said the changes were intended to reduce obstacles in licensing and improve negotiations while preserving rewards for innovation. He linked greater transparency and earlier dispute resolution to a more predictable environment for businesses of different sizes and for investment in the UK.

The government also considered concerns about injunctions, including their threatened use during licensing talks. It concluded that the evidence was insufficient to show the existing framework was systematically blocking market entry, deterring innovation or prompting businesses to remove products from the UK.

It has therefore rejected further restrictions on the availability of injunctions in SEP cases for now. That decision leaves this part of the framework unchanged while ministers concentrate on information and earlier engagement between negotiating parties.

On essentiality assessments, the government found no clear case for an IPO-operated checking service at this stage. Instead, it will work with industry to improve information about existing assessment services and explore non-binding principles for how assessments are conducted and reported.

What happens next

The IPO's immediate task is further technical assessment of the possible FRAND Opinion Service. A call for evidence will seek views on feasibility and design from businesses, professional advisers, academics and other interested parties.

If established, the voluntary service would provide an early assessment of whether a proposed SEP licence offer falls within a FRAND range. The evidence-gathering exercise is intended to inform that decision; the announcement does not amount to approval for the service to begin operating.

The call for evidence will be published when it launches. The government says this work will begin shortly, but the response does not specify a launch date or a deadline for establishing any service.

Beyond the domestic measures, ministers will continue international collaboration to help businesses handle SEP licensing across global markets. Stakeholder engagement will also continue as the individual proposals are developed and implemented.