ABSTRACT
In aspiring to be an international hub for high technology manufacturing, intellectual property and dispute resolution services, Singapore would appear to be a natural (and neutral) forum for disputes related to FRAND licensing to be pursued and resolved. However, without any major telecommunications players or manufacturers based in Singapore, legal disputes involving SEP holders and their licensees have yet to find their way to Singapore’s courts or tribunals. Yet the concept of rights holders being legally constrained to licensing on FRAND terms is not entirely alien to Singapore’s legal landscape, as observed from the various aspects of the copyright, patent and competition law frameworks in Singapore. In this chapter, a survey of these different areas of law is carried out to identify and analyze the issues arising from the implementation of FRAND licensing obligations in Singapore. This will illustrate the legal and commercial complexities of imposing limitations on the freedom of rights holders to profit from their dealings with third parties. Given the traditional reliance that Singapore tribunals have placed upon relevant case law from the English and American courts as legal precedent in the field of commercial law, this chapter will also attempt to extract and summarize the key principles and methodologies embraced by these jurisdictions that are likely to be applied in Singapore should such cases find their way to our shores.
