UPC appoints 12-member expert group to draft FRAND resolution guidelines

The establishment of formal FRAND guidelines signals the UPC's intent to become the primary hub for resolving high-stakes licensing conflicts that have historically bogged down the tech sector. By integrating alternative dispute resolution (ADR) directly into the judicial ecosystem, the PMAC offers an enforceable alternative to the fragmented national court system. For streaming video, this provides a structured forum to resolve escalating disputes over video codec and Wi-Fi standards without the volatility of protracted litigation. Watch for the release of the group's initial discussion paper this fall as a signal for how aggressively the PMAC will intervene in royalty rate determinations.

The formation of the FRAND Working Group follows the official inauguration of the PMAC on June 2, 2026, in Ljubljana, Slovenia. This launch arrives at a critical juncture for European intellectual property policy; per Meissner Bolte and Sternekessler, the European Commission formally withdrew its controversial proposal for Standard Essential Patent (SEP) Regulation in 2025 due to a lack of consensus among member states. The now-withdrawn regulation would have mandated a central SEP registry and pre-litigation conciliation. With that legislative path stalled, industry eyes have shifted to the UPC's judicial and ADR frameworks to fill the regulatory vacuum.

Streaming video technologies have emerged as a primary driver of this renewed focus on SEP policy. According to Cornerstone Research from March 2026, digital video compression standards like HEVC and VVC now represent the 'new frontier' of patent litigation, mirroring the intensity of earlier smartphone patent wars. This trend is corroborated by Fish & Richardson reporting in February 2026, which found that litigation involving video codec SEPs increased 103% between 2020 and 2025. Unlike cellular standards, which are largely centralized at ETSI, video codec declarations are governed by a more fragmented ISO/IEC/ITU policy, making the PMAC’s push for consistent FRAND guidelines particularly relevant for streaming platforms.

Simultaneously, the UPC Court of Appeal is testing the limits of its own authority regarding licensing. In March 2026, the court upheld a decision in Sun Patent Trust v. Vivo to keep alive a request for the court to directly determine global FRAND terms, per HSF Kramer and ip fray. This marks a potential shift toward the UK's approach of court-determined rates, a possibility that increases the strategic importance of the PMAC’s voluntary ADR services as a more confidential, expert-led alternative for companies seeking to avoid a public judicial rate-setting precedent, similar to the recent Atlas Global WiFi patent revocation which impacted ongoing litigation.