It’s a very significant setback for implementers of standard-essential patents (SEPs) that three U.S. government agencies (DOJ, USPTO, NIST) neither agreed on a new SEP policy nor reinstated the Obama Administration’s licensee-friendly policy position. Companies like Apple–whose motion to stay Ericsson’s assertions of three 5G SEPs in the Eastern District of Texas was denied and left the judge puzzled by Apple’s “hot-then-cold” positions–had hoped to use a trend reversal in the U.S. as they are trying to persuade courts and policy makers in other jurisdictions to weaken SEP enforcement.