This material of the EU project HSbooster.eu aims to help:

1. understand that interplay between standards and patents is crucial for innovation, growth, and development;
2. explain why it is impossible to manufacture standard-compliant products, such as smartphones, without using technologies covered by SEPs;
3. understand that once a technical patent becomes essential, it is clear that the standard implementers would prefer to use it at no or a very low cost;
4. understand that once a technical patent becomes essential, SEP holders, who have invested heavily in their patent, seek a beneficial quid pro quo; and
5. explain that device interoperability is guaranteed when SEP holders provide standard implementers with licensing agreements concluded on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms (e.g. also known as a FRAND term).