Antitrust treatment of standard essential patent abuse: China’s experience and lessons

In recent years, how to constrain anti-competitive effects of the abuse of standard essential patents (SEP) has become a hot issue in terms of antitrust enforcement around the world. Since the Anti-Monopoly Law of China took effect in 2008, a number of cases have been investigated in this regard including the Qualcomm case concluded by China's antitrust powerhouse, the National Development and Reform Commission. China's antitrust authorities have been making use of competition law as an effective weapon to balance the SEP power and to safeguard consumer rights in the telecommunication sector, and will continue to do so in the future. This article aims to review the laws and practices of the antitrust regulation of SEP abuse, cover the in-process guidelines of applying antitrust law in the field of IPR and examines important cases. In addtion, an outline and a roadmap is presented alongside the laws and cases.