Apple has asked a European standards body to come up with basic rules for how it handles licensing of wireless standard patents.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Apple told the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) that the patent landscape is inconsistent and would benefit from some guidance. Cupertino penned its letter to ETSI in November, but it was just made public today.
At issue is something known as FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) licensing obligations, which are intended to keep major corporations in check and avoid abusive patent-related behavior. Basically, if a company holds a patent on a technology that is essential to a particular industry, they should make every effort to license that technology, even to major rivals.
"Apple believes the industry would benefit from a more consistent and transparent application of FRAND, especially related to the licensing of cellular standards essential patents," Bruce Watrous, Apple's chief IP counsel, wrote in the letter, a copy of which was posted online by patent blogger Florian Mueller.
In a blog post, Mueller said "that's a diplomatic way of saying that FRAND abuse is rampant these days."
Watrous said Apple was committed to FRAND and proposed a framework based on three elements: appropriate royalty rate; common royalty base; and no injunction.
The news comes to light several days after a Manheim court granted Motorola a permanent injunction against Apple's iCloud push email notifications. The injunction also covers devices that can access iCloud and its predecessor, MobileMe, which prompted Apple to briefly remove items from its German online store.
On that front, Bloomberg reported today that Google, which is in the process of acquiring Motorola Mobility, will tell European regulators, including ETSI, that it will license patents on a FRAND basis.
Apple, of course, has been filing patent lawsuits and asking for injunctions all over the globe against companies like Samsung, HTC, and Motorola.