HLK’s Post

Transcript

Hi, my name is Jamie Rowlands. I'm a partner in UK qualified solicitor in HLK's legal team. I'm also part of the UPC team. I'm going to give a quick summary of how standard essential patent and Fran cases have been developing at the EPC. So firstly, who is litigating the UPC in this area? SCP and Found disputed definitely gaining momentum of the UPC. We've got Panasonic against OPPO and Xiaomi. That's in relation to 3G and 4G. They've got 12 separate actions ongoing. We've got Dolby against various manufacturers, including Asus Tech and Hewlett-Packard. Huawei is fighting Netgear in relation to Wi-Fi. Phillips is against Belkin in relation to wireless charging. More recently, Lenovo has started an action against Erickson in a a long running dispute, but also against Asus tech as well. So that's just a handful. Are are of cases that are going on at the moment of the UPC? And where are these disputes taking place? Where the German local divisions are by far the jurisdiction of choice, with Munich and Mannheim leading the way. Dusseldorf and Hamburg local divisions are also hearing cases. The UPC is not yet handed down any trial decisions, but there are 4 trends that I'm now gonna briefly highlight. The first one is that we have had three interim decisions concerning the disclosure of third party license agreements for use as comparable licenses relating to Friend, and that's in the Panasonic cases. In April 2024, the Munich Local Division ordered the disclosure of a small number of Panasonic licence agreements with third parties and that was seen as a a positive step forward in these types of disputes. However, in May the Manheim Local Division rejected a similar application by OPPO for disclosure. So we now have contradictory decisions on this issue as things currently stand, so it will be interesting to see how that develops. The second trend is that Step and Fran dispute of the UPC are taking longer than the stipulated one year from filing the case. To trial. This is perhaps unsurprising. The complexity of these disputes and the satellite issues that often need separate core applications being that disputes are taking longer than one year to reach trial and examples are here are in a number of the Panasonic disputes, but also fillets versus Bellcom and Huawei versus Netgear have all exceeded the one year mark. The third trend. Is will the court determine Fran terms? So there's always been a lack of clarity on whether the UPC can determine Fran terms, but the general view of the UPC judges is that the court will do so. However, in June 2024, the Man I'm local division refused an application by OPPO in one of the Panasonic cases to set a Fran royalty rate. However, it is important to note that. This refusal is based on specific facts of that case is Oppo did not expressly state that it was willing to commit to the court determined rate. And finally, the 4th trend. Is that the use of the UPC? By non practicing entities. So non practicing entities have companies that derive their revenue from licensing their patent portfolio only. The UPC is growing in popularity with non practicing entities both in Sep cases and beyond. Some examples of non practicing entities suing implementers in the Sep space in the UPC is nearer Innovations versus Xiaomi, Daedulus Prime versus Xiaomi and indeed Mediatek as well. All of these cases are currently being heard in the Hamburg local division. So there's lots going on in the Sep and France space of the UPC will continue to monitor developments and report back on interesting updates as they arise.