Published Paper Details:

The patent protection in the automobile industry plays a prominent role in increasing innovations and safeguarding the rights of the manufacturers and companies. The Standard Essential Patents (SEP's) involves the process of standardization which ensures that the various technical advancements are compatible with one another. There is a necessity to comprehend the relationship between these standards and the patents. The Standard Essential Patents are not explicitly documented though it forms an essential part in the Automobile Industry. The technology producers adopt the Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) principles in order to obtain patent for their technologies. The Standard Essential Patents enables the automobile manufacturers to use the cutting edge technology at a reduced cost which is beneficial. The patent pools and compliance with the FRAND Principles creates a difficulty on the implementation of Standard Essential Patents where the automobile manufacturers have adopted few strategies in order to enable the implementation. The trade secrets have a great prominence in the patent protection of automobile industry as violation of trade secrets in the technologies can affect the patent protection. The suitable trade secret approach is required to be used by the automobile companies in order to obtain patent protection. Over the recent years, there has been a tremendous increase in the trade secret litigations around the world. The initiatives of protecting a design patent have been reduced on a legal basis due to the subjectivity in determining the design patents in countries like U.S and India. The registration of design patents becomes challenging while determining the innovation or novelty in the designs pertaining to the automobile industry.