Press Release: Competition: Commission welcomes changes in ETSI IPR rules to prevent ‘patent ambush’

The European Commission on 12 December 2005 decided to close its investigation of the European Telecommunications Standardisation Institute (ETSI) following ETSI’s recent change to its standard-setting rules. The Commission held that this change strengthened the requirement for early disclosure of those intellectual property rights (IPRs) which are essential for the implementation of a standard in order to minimise the risk of so-called ‘patent ambush’ (where a company hides the fact that it owns IPRs essential for a standard).