Huawei Technologies Co. v. ZTE Deutschland GmbH
Published: 7/16/15
This case was referred by a German court to the European Court of Justice to assess whether the invocation of injunctive relief by a holder of a FRAND-encumbered SEP may constitute an abuse of a dominant position. The Advocate General concluded in an advisory opinion that “the commitment given by [the SEP holder] … bears some similarity to a ‘licence of right,’” and that “where a patent licensee has a licence of right, an injunction may […]
Ericsson Inc. v. D-Link Systems
Published: 12/2/14
In this decision, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reviewed a trial court’s decision upholding a jury award of $0.15 for three Wi-Fi SEPs. The Court of Appeals held that the trial court had not instructed the jury properly and reversed the damages award. In particular, it faulted the trial court for failing to instruct the jury to apportion the royalty to the value of the patented inventions. The court held that:
“When […]
VirnetX, Inc. v. Cisco Systems, Inc.
Published: 9/27/14
Plaintiff VirnetX claimed that both the FaceTime and VPN on Demand features of Apple’s phones, tablets, and computers infringed four of its patents. At trial, VirnetX cited three possible damages theories, including one based on 1% of the lowest sale price of each of Apple’s allegedly infringing devices. The jury awarded $368 million in damages to VirnetX, and Apple appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which has exclusive appellate jurisdiction over […]
Brief of Amicus Curiae the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in Support of No Party, Ericsson Inc. v. D-Link Systems, Inc., U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
Published: 12/20/13
In 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 “protect implementers of a standard against patent hold-up.” According to IEEE, hold-up is “the ability of the owner of patented technology to extract higher royalties ‘after its […]
Realtek Semiconductor Corp. v. LSI Corp.
Published: 5/20/13
The plaintiff in this case, Realtek, a manufacturer of Wi-Fi chips, asserted that LSI, a holder of two FRAND-encumbered Wi-Fi SEPs, breached its FRAND obligation by seeking an exclusion order (the equivalent of an injunction) against the importation of Realtek’s Wi-Fi chips and sought an order barring LSI from seeking to enforce or enforcing any injunctive relief against Realtek based on those SEPs. Realtek also asserted that proffer of a FRAND license was “inherently unreasonable because […]
In re Innovatio IP Ventures, LLC Patent Litig.
Published: 5/20/13
This decision established a FRAND royalty rate for Innovatio’s portfolio of 802.11 (Wi-Fi) SEPs. The court determined the royalty rate 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 standard. The court held that three considerations were relevant to the FRAND determination: (1) avoiding the “substantial problem” of patent hold-up, which can result in […]