Statement from IP Europe Managing Director Patrick McCutcheon following today’s vote by the European Parliament on Standard-Essential Patents:

“The European Parliament has scored a painful own goal for European technology leadership after a massive campaign of misinformation and lobbying by the automotive industry and Big Tech. 

In the coming months we will work to demonstrate to EU Member States why Europe needs to strengthen incentives for companies to invest in early-stage technologies and the development of global technical standards. 

We understand that many Member States are analysing the Commission’s proposal in detail and have raised many important technical, legal, practical, and competitiveness-related questions. This should enable a thorough understanding of the regulation’s impact on Europe’s open innovation ecosystem.

The Parliament ignored strong objections from many top European intellectual property experts including the European Patent Office, which questioned both the need for this regulation and the radical nature of the proposed changes. 

IP Europe thanks those MEPs who tabled amendments that would have limited some of the damage that this proposal causes, and who voted against the proposal or abstained.