Our FRAND-Inspired Licensing Framework

Patents protecting inventions for braking systems are not standard-essential in the sense of formal industry standards such as those established by standard setting organizations such as ETSI in the field of wireless telecommunications. Within such standardization frameworks, participants whose patents are essential to a standard are typically required to declare those patents and to undertake to license them on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. This mechanism is intended to ensure access to standardized technologies while maintaining appropriate incentives for innovation.

The patents held and licensed by IPGATE AG are not subject to such standardization frameworks and are therefore not subject to mandatory FRAND licensing obligations. Nevertheless, IPGATE AG has designed its licensing program in a manner inspired by widely recognized FRAND principles. These principles serve as a reference framework for IPGATE AG’s licensing activities and are intended to promote transparency, fairness and a balanced licensing environment for industry participants.

In practice, this means that IPGATE AG seeks to conduct licensing discussions in a transparent and constructive manner and to offer licensing terms that reflect the technical and economic value of the patented technologies while ensuring non-discriminatory access for similarly situated implementers. At the same time, IPGATE AG maintains the right to protect and enforce its intellectual property where appropriate.
 
IPGATE AG protects genuine innovation. Recovering the substantial investments made in research and development is essential to ensure that groundbreaking technological advances are properly rewarded and, above all, to enable the continued development of next-generation braking and motion control technologies.
 
For further details on IPGATE AG’s FRAND-inspired licensing approach and the underlying royalty benchmarking methodology, please refer to our FRAND-Inspired Licensing and Royalty Benchmark document, which is available for download here in English and here in Chinese.