One of the world’s greatest experiments in open innovation is mobile wireless. Technology enterprises have invested billions of R&D dollars to develop 2G, 3G, 4G, now 5G, and hopefully 6G soon. Technology developers make investments and look to the patent system and associated regulators to reward them for risky investments, should their patented technologies become included in the standards. In recent years there has been an uptick in the number of technology implementers. But because patents are not self-enforcing, unlicensed use occurs, which is corrosive of the open innovation system that allows non-vertically integrated firms to compete at the device level. This chapter reviews antitrust theories that some implementers have used to avoid paying royalties to patent owners. This is examined in the context of the FRAND licensing regime established by ETSI, a standards development organization. “Hold up” and “hold out” theories are examined. Hold up theories lack empirical support and are misused by some implementers—particularly those in China—who would prefer to free ride on the R&D investments of others. Restoring and revitalizing technology markets for mobile wireless likely requires limits to be placed on the availability of FRAND licenses with respect to recalcitrant technology implementers. Otherwise, the innovation ecosystem will be harmed, and open innovation (that is, licensing) business models will collapse.

This chapter offers three case studies on recent disagreements in the bodies and committees of three SDOs, where procedural guarantees were at stake. These disagreements arose at three different “levels”: standards development, policy-making, and appeal procedures. The discussed disagreements were either resolved through the internal dispute resolution bodies of these SDOs, or escalated to litigation. In particular, this chapter attempts to reveal what can be learned from the experiences of stakeholders involved in these disagreements and concludes that, despite the different nature of these disputes, they arose from the (potential) exclusion of the relevant stakeholders from particular institutional processes.

Chapter 26 covers IP pooling arrangements, first discussing the efficiency and enablement goals of such arrangements, including motivations for pooling. It then discusses the antitrust analysis of IP pools beginning with Standard Oil (Indiana), which established that pooling for the purpose of eliminating blocking positions can be viewed as procompetitive, and then discussing more recent agency pronouncements. The use of pools for patented standards is discussed in the context of DOJ business review letters for the MPEG-2 and 3GPP pools. Features such as complementarity, essentiality, defensive termination, grantbacks and nondiscrimination are discussed. The chapter concludes with a discussion of defensive patent aggregation and how it differs from other forms of pooling.

This chapter provides a practical discussion on the integration of UAVs into real-world cellular systems, ranging from long-term evolution (LTE) to 5G new radio (NR) and beyond. We first review the roles of mobile cellular technologies for UAV applications while highlighting the use of mobile connectivity and the role of mobile cellular technologies in enabling the development of new services for UAVs in key areas such as identification and registration, location-based services, and law enforcement. Then, we discuss LTE-enabled UAVs in more detail, including a tutorial on LTE and the various UAV use cases that include UAV LTE user equipment and UAV LTE base stations. We also touch upon some performance enhancing solutions that can optimize LTE connectivity for providing improved performance for UAVs while protecting the performance of terrestrial mobile devices. We then introduce various 3GPP standardization efforts on cellular-connected UAVs that aim to address the anticipated usage of mobile technologies by UAVs and regulatory requirements. Next, we discuss 5G NR-enabled UAVs while providing a primer on 5G NR essentials, how 5G NR can provide superior UAV connectivity, and the roles of network slicing and network intelligence for identifying, monitoring, and controlling UAVs in the 5G era.