ETSI prepares for EU SEP regulation by appointing a chief policy officer

Martin Chatel has been appointed chief policy officer at standards body ETSI. He took up the role on 10 February, which entails leading the policy affairs department. In its announcement yesterday, the standards body said Chatel “will spearhead ETSI’s strategic policy engagement with the European Commission” and other bodies, associations, policymakers and stakeholders, reporting to ETSI Director-General Jan Ellsberger. Chatel holds a masters in international law from Sciences Po Paris and an LLM from the Institute of European Studies.

He has previously held a variety of roles including senior IP legal services and product manager (patents) at IP firm Dennemeyer & Associate in Germany and manager of legal affairs at Cenelec (the European Electrotechnical Committee for Standardization) in Brussels. Ellsberger says, “The Policy Affairs Department will play a crucial role in supporting the European Union’s commitment to ethical, secure, and privacy-preserving technology deployment.” Chatel’s responsibilities are likely to include representing the interests of ETSI in the context of the EU Commission’s planned SEP reform, which will affect a large proportion of the patents in the ETSI standards.

One of the key proposals is a competence centre, which would carry out non-binding essentiality checks. Additionally, FRAND-rate determination by mediators would be mandatory, if non-binding, before parties can then litigate in UPC countries.