Birmingham, England, 23rd March 2005: Sendo Holdings PLC today announced that it has filed documents with the European Competition Commission relating to the unfair exploitation of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute ("ETSI") IPR Policy by a number of intellectual property right ("IPR") owners, including TELEFONAKTIEBOLAGET LM ERICSSON, a Swedish Corporation ("Ericsson").
The filing relates to the licensing system provided for in the ETSI IPR Policy and Ericsson's anti-competitive behaviour and abuse of that system, contrary to Articles 81 and 82 of the EC Treaty.
Sendo claims that Ericsson is seeking to license its patents to third parties on an unfair, anti-competitive, abusive and discriminatory basis leading to the charging of excessive royalty rates, which when combined with other companies' royalties results in a cumulative excessive royalty rate. This restricts competition and excludes new market entrants from operating effectively or at all in the GSM market.
The GSM Standard, partly funded by the European Union at the expense of the European taxpayer, and the corresponding ETSI rules, defines the conditions of competition in the market for GSM technology and makes companies that declare patents as "essential" for the GSM standard, obligatory trading partners.
Sendo considers that Ericsson and others are misusing ETSI and its licensing regime and in fact are operating under the cloak of a cartel between Ericsson and others whose object is to limit third party competition, and generally control and manipulate technical and commercial progress to their own ends, in a manner entirely contrary to what ETSI was seeking to achieve and contrary to the stated objectives of the European Commission.
ETSI and its members agreed a licensing regime in relation to IPRs which are supposed to be essential to the GSM Standard in order to ensure that the technology in relation to the GSM Standard was made available to all parties on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. Sendo believes that Ericsson and others are not operating in accordance with these requirements, which ultimately is to the detriment of consumers as competition is stifled.
Hugh Brogan, Sendo's Chief Executive Officer, said, "Sendo believes strongly in the principles that the members of ETSI have agreed upon. This issue affects the entire industry and the promotion of free competition can only create a healthy industry and ultimately benefit the consumer."
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About Sendo
Sendo, headquartered in the United Kingdom, started shipping its first terminals to operator customers in Europe and Asia in June 2001. The company is now shipping products in over fifty countries in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and the Americas. Sendo offers high-performance, competitively priced, reliable products and services to the cellular market. Sendo has been established with the needs of the wireless carriers and consumers in mind. The company offers a complete custom program, from exclusively branded phones, matched fulfillment programs and software with dedicated services. Details of the company are available at www.sendo.com.
For more information:
Lammers van Toorenburg Benelux PR
Annegees van Linge
tel.: 030 - 65 65 070
Sendo@lvtpr.nl