On September 25, 2026, the Patent Mediation and Arbitration Center (PMAC) of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) issued an announcement on its official website, launching a public consultation process on the “Discussion Paper on the Draft FRAND Guidelines.” The working group, chaired by Simon Dack, a member of the PMAC Expert Committee, was established in accordance with the PMAC Arbitration Rules, the PMAC Mediation Rules, and the PMAC Expert Determination Rules. The consultation period will run until October 26, 2026.

The announcement states that the PMAC Guidelines will provide a non-binding, flexible framework of best practices for resolving FRAND disputes through mediation, arbitration, expert determination, or hybrid proceedings, emphasizing party autonomy, confidentiality, the principle of proportionality, and the early definition of the scope of the dispute. The draft also addresses matters such as the selection of neutral parties, evidence and patent portfolio valuation, parallel court proceedings, and possible outcomes, and will be refined based on stakeholder feedback and future developments in case law.

This consultation is open to stakeholders in the FRAND and SEP licensing ecosystem, including SEP holders, implementers, and other relevant parties. PMAC seeks comments and suggestions regarding the proposed structure, content, and any topics that may have been omitted. The deadline for submitting comments is October 26, 2026, at E-mail contact-pmac@unifiedpatentcourt.org.

PMAC stated that, after reviewing the comments received, the working group will continue to develop the guidelines. At a later stage, another round of public consultation on the draft “FRAND Guidelines” will be conducted to provide stakeholders with an additional opportunity to comment. The relevant discussion paper is attached to the announcement.

In addition to soliciting comments on this discussion draft, PMAC also briefly outlined in the same announcement a plan with the European Patent Office (EPO) to establish a global FRAND case law database. Based on the working group’s recommendation, PMAC and the EPO have agreed to develop a database containing case law related to FRAND disputes from jurisdictions around the world. Juliane Kotzur of the EPO’s Patent and Technology Observatory has been appointed as an observer to the working group.

Scan the QR code to access the original discussion paper.