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Injunctions facilitate patent licensing deals: evidence from the automotive sector
Since the automotive sector chose to incorporate cellular standards (2G to 5G) in its vehicles, there have been tensions between car manufacturers and the owners of patents essential to these standards (SEPs). This article...
5G promises to be a game changer for the extended connectivity-based value chain, encompassing a much broader set of digitalized industries than previous solutions. By reshaping competition among market players and among technologies, it changes the trade-offs underlying the application of the non-discrimination principle. In this paper, we provide a unified view of the implications of these technological developments for four instantiations of this principle that span the entire digital value chain: non-discrimination in FRAND licensing of standard-essential patents (SEPs), vertical separation remedies, network neutrality and technological neutrality. We conclude that overly rigid and non-technology neutral interpretations of the non-discrimination requirement would be at odds with technological evolution and would be incompatible with the objective to maximize the overall value of digital networks.