Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to help ensure that small and medium-sized enterprises developing innovative products, do not have to pay excessive royalties to foreign companies for licences to standard-essential patents.

In December 2021, the Government launched a Call for Views on whether or not the current Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) ecosystem promotes competition and encourages innovation. In its August 2022 Summary of Responses the Government said that there was little consensus on the nature, extent, causes, and impact of problems in the ecosystem. A subsequent questionnaire was launched in March 2023, to better understand the experiences of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), small-cap and mid-cap businesses. A Summary of Responses will be published in Summer 2023. Findings on the SEPs ecosystem will be presented to Ministers in late 2023.