Technical standards are crucial for the development and improvement of Europe's digital infrastructure. They create a uniform technological basis and enable interoperability between different products. The need for such uniform standards is growing steadily, especially in future-oriented areas such as artificial intelligence and quantum communication. Well-known examples are wireless communication standards such as 3G, 4G, 5G, and Wi-Fi.

So-called standard essential patents (SEPs) also play an important role here, protecting technologies that are essential for compliance with technical standards. SEP holders must grant their licensees rights of use on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms (FRAND).

The EPO's Patent Index 2024 shows that computer technologies, which include AI applications such as machine learning and pattern recognition, account for by far the most patent applications, followed by digital communication in third place. Standardization is particularly important in these highly patented areas to ensure compatibility and innovation.

The European Commission is now calling for greater transparency in patents and technology standards. In response, the European Patent Office (EPO) has published a recent study highlighting the current links between patents and standards. The study is based on the EPO's extensive databases on the state of the art, which contain over 5.5 million documents from the standards development process. Although explicit reference to standardization documents is not mandatory for SEPs, around 37% of all patents declared as SEPs now include such references to make it easier for licensees to identify relevant patents and to ensure greater transparency.

Since June 2023, the Unified Patent Court (UPC) has played a key role in SEP disputes. It has established itself as the central authority in Europe and, by the end of 2024, had already conducted 23 proceedings on SEP conflicts, leading to a decline in parallel proceedings in national courts. From the end of 2025, the EPG's Patent Mediation and Arbitration Center (PMAC) will supplement the offering with out-of-court proceedings that enable fast, flexible, and cost-effective agreements in global SEP disputes.