Published: April 23, 2018
Publisher: IP Pro Patents
Huawei and ZTE’s bid to dismiss Conversant’s patent infringement claims has been rejected by the English High Court.
The Chinese companies had argued that the English court was not the right jurisdiction for the patent infringement claim, as the relief sought is the determination of a global fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) license. But in a ruling on 16 April, Justice Henry Carr held that the English court was the “appropriate forum”. Conversant accused Huawei and ZTE of infringing the UK designations for some of its European standard-essential patents (SEPs).
Conversant claimed it had made several FRAND offers to both ZTE and Huawei. But the Chinese companies allegedly “continued to infringe” the patents, without taking a license. Conversant sued in July 2017, seeking a determination of FRAND terms for its global SEP portfolio.
Huawei and ZTE then argued that the case should be heard in China and that the English court “lacked the jurisdiction to rule on the matter as the claims were for the infringement of foreign patents of disputed validity”.