The stock of Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) closed at $157.41 gaining 0.64% in yesterday’s closing session. This phone company, together with Volkswagen AG (ADR) (OTCMKTS:VLKAY), Daimler and BMW have issued a warning to EU regulators.
It was in a bid to express their dissatisfaction with the fact that the regulators had openly adopted patent fee guidelines that favored Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) and QUALCOMM, Inc (NASDAQ:QCOM).The companies expressed concerns that the regulators move could end up hindering innovation and hurting consumers at the same time.
Fair Standards Alliance (FSA), which happens to be the companies’ lobbying group through a letter voiced concerns. These concerns were directed to the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Industry Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska, Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager and their colleagues.
Whether or not a fridge maker should pay a different rate for critical patents than a carmaker is a matter that the EU executive continues to ponder over at the moment. In the same line of thought, they have also been considering whether or not a flat, fixed rate would turn out to be fairer. It is also worth mentioning that there are trillions of dollars in sales at stake at the moment.
Sources indicate that the latest Commission draft in a major way favored the patent fee model used by Ericsson and Qualcomm .It has received great opposition from Apple and other business giants in Silicon Valley that favored fixed fees.
Bienkowska’s officials, who are spearheading the move, are at the moment seeking feedback from other units in the commission and their goal has been to by November finalize the guidelines.
A top analyst opined, “The European Commission risks jeopardising Europe’s potential to be a world leader in the Internet of Things by supporting a patent licensing system which rewards a few entrenched patent-holding companies at the expense of innovative companies and ultimately consumers.”
Lucia Caudet, a spokeswoman, outlined that there was need for the various actors to come together in a joint move to help strike a balance between implementers and the patent holders.
