Published: 5/16/14In this case, the Tokyo High Court established a FRAND royalty for patents essential to the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (“UMTS”) standard. The court determined that the aggregate royalty stack for licenses to UMTS SEPs should not exceed 5% based on its understanding that many SEP holders under that [...]
Published: 4/29/14In this decision, the European Commission determined that Motorola Mobility abused its dominant position under European competition law by seeking and enforcing an injunction against Apple for infringing a FRAND-encumbered SEP. The Commission explained that FRAND commitments are "designed to ensure effective access to a standard for all market [...]
Published: 4/29/14European Commission accepted commitments from Samsung not to seek injunctions with respect to FRAND-encumbered SEPs for smartphones and tablets against licensees that agree to a licensing framework. These commitments resolved allegations in a Statement of Objections issued by the Commission to Samsung in which the Commission expressed its preliminary [...]
Published: 4/29/14The European Commission accepted commitments from Samsung not to seek injunctions with respect to FRAND-encumbered SEPs for smartphones and tablets against licensees that agree to a licensing framework. These commitments resolved allegations in a Statement of Objections issued by the Commission to Samsung in which the Commission expressed its [...]
Published: 4/29/14The European Commission determined that “Motorola Mobility’s seeking and enforcement of an injunction against Apple before a German court on the basis of a smartphone standard essential patent SEP) constitutes an abuse of a dominant position prohibited by EU antitrust rules.” The Commission explained that FRAND commitments are “designed [...]
Published: 4/25/14The trial court decision was rendered by Court of Appeals Judge and leading antitrust scholar Richard Posner. In that decision, Judge Posner rejected Motorola’s request to enjoin Apple from practicing FRAND-encumbered SEPs owned by Motorola, stating: “I don't see how, given FRAND, I would be justified in enjoining Apple [...]
Published: 2/26/14In March 2012, Apple submitted a complaint to the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) contending that Samsung’s request for an injunction for FRAND-committed patents violated the MRFTA. (See Judicial – Korea page for a summary of the litigation over injunctive relief.) In February 2014, the KFTC concluded that Samsung [...]
Published: 1/16/14In a preliminary opinion directing an investigation based on a second complaint by Intex against Ericsson, the Competition Commission of India repeated the same preliminary conclusions that it expressed in directing the first investigation of Ericsson due to allegations by Micromax. A summary of the first complaint and related [...]
Published: 1/1/14 This article estimates the royalty stack for smartphones on the basis of publicly available information regarding licensing terms. The article presents a “bottom-up” analysis of smartphone royalties by examining the potential royalty burden on the major technologies and components in smartphones. According to the article, “setting aside off-sets [...]
Published: 12/20/13In these two briefs, the IEEE, a leading standard setting organization in the computing and networking industries, explains the process through which it develops industry standards, including the process of seeking FRAND commitments from standard-setting participants. The IEEE then goes on to explain that it seeks FRAND commitments to [...]