InterDigital Communications, Inc. v. Huawei Technology Co.
Published: 1/8/13
No available links. Summaries are based on unofficial English translations.
In 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 estimated royalty rates of the SEP holder’s licenses to two licensees, Apple and Samsung, which […]
Apple Japan Godo Kaisha v. Samsung Electronics Co.
Published: 1/8/13
No available links. The Summary is based on unofficial English translations.
In 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 standard had agreed to a 5% maximum royalty stack. The court also took into account that the […]
Brief of Amicus Curiae the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in Support of No Party, Apple. Inc. v. Motorola, Inc., U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
Published: 12/19/12
In these briefs, the IEEE, a leading standard setting organization in the computing and networking industries, explains the process through which it develops industry standards and seeks FRAND commitments from standard-setting participants 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 technology has been chosen by the SSO as a standard and others have incurred sunk costs […]
Microsoft Corp. v. Motorola, Inc. 2012
Published: 9/28/12
In this decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court’s holding that enjoined a holder of FRAND-encumbered SEPs from enforcing a patent injunction obtained in Germany against a potential licensee. The court addressed a FRAND commitment made to the International Telecommunications Union, under which the SEP holder undertook to “grant a license to an unrestricted number of applicants on a worldwide, non-discriminatory basis and on reasonable terms and conditions” to […]
LaserDynamics, Inc. v. Quanta Computer
Published: 8/30/12
LaserDynamics accused Quanta, a laptop computer manufacturer, of infringing a patent that read on a method for identifying the type of disc inserted into an optical drive. A jury found for LaserDynamics, who claimed that a reasonable royalty should be 2% of the price of the entire notebook computer containing the drive, and awarded $52.1 million in damages. After a new trial, a subsequent jury awarded LaserDynamics $8.5 million in damages, and LaserDynamics appealed to the […]
Apple, Inc. v. Motorola, Inc.
Published: 6/22/12
In this case, both Apple and Motorola sought damages and injunctive relief against the other party and both were denied relief (although Apple’s patents at issue were not SEPs). The trial court decision was rendered by Court of Appeals Judge and leading antitrust scholar Richard Posner. In rejecting Motorola’s request to enjoin Apple from practicing FRAND-encumbered SEPs owned by Motorola, Judge Posner stated: “I don’t see how, given FRAND, I would be justified in enjoining Apple […]