Published: 1/6/16Publication: IAMAs always, the arrival of the new year provides an opportunity to set out grand plans for the twelve months to come and indulge in a bit of optimism about what can be accomplished in that time span. Patent offices are no different, and today we look at [...]
Published: 1/6/16Publication: Comparative Patent RemediesAs mentioned previously on this blog (see here and here), district courts in Düsseldorf and in Mannheim recently have issued injunctions in favor of the owners of FRAND-encumbered SEPs. Interestingly, in both cases the entity asserting the patents was a nonpracticing entity. The courts left many questions open but both [...]
Published: 1/2/14In his op-ed Mr. Dhal, former Chairman of the Competition Commission of India (CCI), summarizes the complaint Micromax brought against Ericsson for allegedly violating its FRAND commitments by charging exorbitant and discriminatory royalty rates for SEPs (see summary of complaint on web page addressing materials by antitrust agencies). Mr. [...]
Published: 1/2/14Publication: The Economic TimesThis op-ed discusses the application of India’s Competition Act to breaches of FRAND commitment. It states that “India’s Competition Act is equipped to deal with scenarios where the SEP holder reneges on Frand commitments. This would generally attract the Act’s provisions against ‘abuse of dominance’ (Section [...]
Published: 1/1/15Publication: Law360"Law360, New York (January 14, 2015, 6:06 PM ET) -- Ericsson Inc. sued Apple Inc. on Wednesday in Texas federal court, claiming it has complied with a pledge to license its standard-essential wireless patents on terms that are fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory, in response to Apple's suit claiming [...]
Published: 1/1/15Publication: SpicyIP"As his first entry to our SpicyIP Fellowship applicant series, Kartik Chawla brings us an interesting post looking at the smartphone patent wars from an innovation perspective. He says a disruption in the smartphone sector may help overcome some of the issues that are cropping up with all the SEP [...]
Published: 1/1/14In 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: 1/1/14In 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 [...]
Published: 1/1/13This decision established a FRAND royalty rate for Innovatio’s portfolio of 802.11 SEPs. The court made this determination based on a hypothetical negotiation occurring “at the time of the initial adoption of the 802.11 standard,” and thus before implementers were locked into using patents that are essential under that [...]
Published: 1/1/13In this decision, a Chinese appellate court determined the FRAND royalty for FRAND-encumbered SEPs relating to various telephony standards. The court determined that the SEP holder breached its FRAND commitments by seeking excessive royalties. The court affirmed a lower court’s determination of the FRAND rate by reference to the [...]