Published: April 16, 2018
Publisher: Law.com
No matter what the Federal Circuit or the new head of DOJ antitrust might have said, standard-essential patents and injunctions don’t mix.
That’s the takeaway from U.S. District Judge William Orrick III’s order on April 13 in Samsung Electronics Co. and Huawei Technologies Co.’s worldwide patent litigation.
Samsung prevailed with Orrick to temporarily nullify Chinese court injunctions that would have blocked Samsung from making and selling smartphones in that country. Orrick ruled it was too soon in the U.S. litigation process to enforce injunctions over the disputed patents, which are essential to practicing the 4G LTE standard.
“The Chinese injunctions could render meaningless the proceedings here, and the risk of harm to Samsung’s operations in China in the interim is great” Orrick wrote in granting Samsung’s motion for an anti-suit injunction. The order effectively prevents Huawei from enforcing the Chinese injunctions until parallel U.S. claims are resolved.
The April 13 ruling in Huawei v. Samsung Electronics is a win for a Quinn Emanuel Urguhart & Sullivan team led by partners Charles Verhoeven, Victoria Maroulis, Thomas Pease and of counsel Sam Stake. Paul Zeineddin of Zeineddin PLLC also represents Samsung. Huawei is represented by Sidley Austin.