First published by EurActiv: https://www.euractiv.com/opinion/europe-needs-innovation-rules-that-help-startups-breathe-not-freeze
Acute XR CEO argues Europe’s uncertain patent licensing system stifles startups developing AI and VR technologies. With SEP reform stalled in a legal dispute, the company urges EU institutions to reach compromise, warning prolonged uncertainty threatens innovation and market access for small businesses.
Imagine a child sitting in a clinic wearing a VR headset. Inside the simulation, their breath becomes the controller. Each inhale and exhale triggers real-time feedback. The world slows down. They are not just playing; they are learning how to manage stress and anxiety. Our product, Calm Quest, is built to give children clarity in moments of overwhelm.
At Acute XR, we built Calm Quest to help children navigate stress and anxiety with structure, feedback, and a clear sense of control. In many ways, small businesses like ours need the same support when navigating complex systems such as standard-essential patent (SEP) licensing. But instead of transparency, startups and small tech innovators are met with silence. Instead of clear expectations, we get unpredictable demands. Instead of support, we are left to manage the consequences ourselves.
Right now, SEP reform sits in a legal dispute between the European Commission and the European Parliament. If this plays out only in the courts, change could be years away, and for startups like mine, prolonged uncertainty means shelved products, abandoned markets, and missed chances to grow. The Commission should work with Parliament and the Council to drive a compromise that delivers the reform and transparency that startups and SMEs like mine need.
A system that works in both directions
The European Union’s (EU) current SEP licensing environment impacts small innovators the same way untreated anxiety affects a child: it overwhelms, confuses, and punishes attempts to engage. The result is unpredictable costs, key terms buried in non-disclosure agreements, and negotiations driven more by legal pressure than by fair dialogue. For startups, this is not theoretical. These obstacles are the reasons small teams delay features, rethink product plans, miss investment opportunities, or conclude that certain markets are simply out of reach.
Startups and SMEs working in artificial intelligence (AI), extended reality (XR), internet of things (IoT), and health tech often build on standardised technologies, but lack a clear, straightforward SEP licensing system that they can realistically navigate. Instead of structure, they get silence. Instead of transparency, they get injunctions. And instead of support, they are left to operate in uncertainty.
This would be problematic in any part of the tech ecosystem, but in emerging fields like AI and XR, it can be crippling. Today’s startups are not just adopting standards; they are creating them and building the foundational technologies that will define the next generation. This means a startup may be both a licensee and potential licensor within the SEP ecosystem. If the licensing system only works for one side of that equation, innovation stalls. The SEP landscape must be navigable in both directions. It must work for today’s licensees and tomorrow’s licensors, or Europe will continue to squander the full potential that its innovators can offer.
A critical chance to restore clarity and fairness
The European Parliament has made clear that SEP reform should still be on the table. After the European Commission withdrew its proposal for a SEP regulation, the Parliament took the unusual step of challenging that decision before the European Court of Justice. That action alone signals to small companies like ours that lawmakers recognise the current system is failing. The proposal was not perfect, but it was a serious attempt to bring basic order, transparency, and predictability to a process that today only the largest players can navigate. Europe says it wants startups, scaleups, and SMEs to power its Digital Decade. That goal rings hollow if the rules we are supposed to follow remain a black box.
Calm Quest gives users structure instead of stress. SEP reform would do the same for EU startups navigating a complex SEP licensing system. It would replace silence with transparency, unpredictability with clear expectations, and legal risk with a workable path forward.
Written by Dominik Kirchdorfer, Co-Founder and CEO of Acute XR