In-house legal departments for companies that make products connected to data or phones should consider keeping up with how courts are ruling in litigation concerning standard essential patents, a group of Kirkland & Ellis attorneys said Wednesday in a roundtable call with members of the media.

A standardized essential patent on an invention must be used to comply with a technical standard. Because these inventions are standard in items like telephones, routers and laptops, patent infringement litigation is common and courts often award fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory, or FRAND, royalty rates for use of these patents.