In April Enrico Bonadio, Luke McDonagh and Francesco Chierichetti reported in this blog four decisions in Italian SEP-related litigations. Since then, thanks to further research and inputs from friends and colleagues, we have come across some other unpublished decisions, which we want to highlight here. Court of Turin, 4 April 2014 – HTC Europe…
Introduction The implementation of 4G mobile communication technology in the UK has become very expensive for Apple in light of the High Court of England and Wales’ decision last month in Optis v. Apple. The court held that Optis’s standard-essential patents (‘SEPs’) were infringed by Apple. The court added that it was willing to decide…
On 22 April 2021 the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC) gave a judgement in Claydon Yield-O-Meter v Mzuri, a UK case on patent invalidity because of prior disclosure. As is known, in order for an invention to be considered new under Section 2(2) of the UK’s Patents Act 1977, it must not form part of…
In the past few years, India has produced significant case law on Standard Essential Patents (‘SEPs’), with the High Court of Delhi being the venue of several high-profile disputes. An important SEP decision in India – InterDigital v Xiaomi – was released by this court in early May 2021. The case relates to litigation occurring…
SEP-related case law in Europe is regularly reported in this blog, and other European platforms. Decisions of courts in UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands on FRAND royalties, anti-suit injunctions, anti-anti-suit injunctions, declarations of essentiality and other SEP issues are often thoroughly commented upon. This is not the case of Italian SEP case law. While…
In an earlier post we considered the general licensing and evaluation issues raised by a report issued in January 2021 by the EU Group of Experts on Standard Essential Patents (EU SEPs Expert Group). The present comment focuses on the transparency aspects highlighted by the Expert Group’s report. Transparency of Declarations In an ideal world…
The report issued in January 2021 by the EU Group of Experts on Licensing and Valuation of Standard Essential Patents (EU SEPs Expert Group) was long-anticipated and followed two years of debate and discussion within the group. The published document is very long and wide-ranging (229 pages). Given the scope of the report, it certainly…
Introduction The debate over standard essential patents (SEPs) often focuses on the interpretation of FRAND terms and conditions and the extent to which patent owners can refuse to license their exclusive rights to implementers, and ask courts to issue injunctions against them. What is also discussed by SEPs commentators (perhaps, to a lesser extent) is…
This month the Mannheim Regional Court released a decision (here) in the dispute between Daimler AG, owner of the famous Mercedes-Benz brand, and the Finnish company Nokia (also see our previous post on this blog (Another CJEU ruling on standard-essential patents and FRAND looks inevitable). The controversy centred on Nokia’s European Patent EP2981103, which the German…
Cars and other motor vehicles operate such sophisticated communication technologies that today they operate almost like “smartphones on wheels”. This dependency on electronic communication means auto-manufacturers require access to the latest 4G and 5G standards essential to navigation and communications. Of course, these essential technologies are often patented and thus there are a range of…
