Unwired Planet Wins German Cellular Essential Patent Infringement Case Against Samsung, LG Electronics and Huawei
January 21 2016 - 6:30AM
Business Wire
Unwired Planet, Inc. (NASDAQ:UPIP) today announced that the
Düsseldorf District Court in Germany issued its judgments that cell
phone and infrastructure manufacturers Samsung, LG Electronics and
Huawei each infringe multiple Unwired Planet patents. The judgments
come after an initial trial held in June 2015 against Huawei, and a
multi-day trial held in late November and December 2015 against the
other defendants.
Confirmation of Infringement
The Düsseldorf District Court court held that the defendants’
LTE and GSM compliant handsets infringe three Unwired Planet
patents: EP (DE) 2,119,287 and EP (DE) 2,485,514, and EP
(DE) 1 230 818. With respect to infrastructure equipment, the
court found that Samsung and Huawei’s infrastructure equipment
infringes patent EP (DE) 2,119,287 but not patent EP (DE)
2,485,514.
The defendants filed actions with the German Federal Patent
Court alleging that the patents are invalid; however, the
Düsseldorf court did not grant a stay of the proceedings. The court
ruled that it did not find a sufficient likelihood that these
actions, called “nullity actions” in Germany, would be successful.
In the German case, claimant Unwired Planet International Ltd. was
represented by Ben Grzimek of the EIP Law Firm and Hosea Haag of
the Ampersand firm.
"This is a great result and certainly increases our chances of
being fairly and properly compensated,” said Unwired
Planet CEO Boris Teksler. “This judgment marks one of the
few decisions in Europe after the landmark Huawei v. ZTE decision
last July governing the conduct of FRAND licensing. This decision
solidifies wins in two jurisdictions and increases the number of
cellular standard essential patents to four that have been
positively adjudicated by the courts."
On July 16, 2015, the Court of Justice of the European Union
(CJEU), the highest appellate court in the European Union, provided
needed guidance regarding the obligations of both patent holders
who want to assert their standard essential patents and the alleged
infringers who wants to rely on the FRAND license defense (Huawei v
ZTE, 16 July 2015, Case C-170/13).
“The CJEU set out the general principles for both licensors and
licensees. To date we’ve only sought monetary damages for the
defendants’ infringement,” said Unwired Planet general counsel Noah
D. Mesel. “The CJEU’s licensing principles specify that patent
holders may seek injunctive relief in certain circumstances if the
infringer fails to negotiate in good faith with the patent holder
on the terms of a license.”
UK Litigation Update
As is widely known, the UK courts employ a “loser-pays”
fee-shifting system. On December 16, 2015, the Court ordered
Samsung and Huawei to make an initial partial payment of £1,270,800
(approximately $1.9 million) on account of Unwired Planet’s legal
fees for the first UK trial. Those payments now have been made. If
the parties do not agree on a total fee amount due to Unwired
Planet, a further hearing will be calendared.
On a related note Samsung and Huawei have filed an appeal of the
UK High Court’s decision of the findings of validity and
infringement of the EP (UK) 2 229 744 patent. The court has
not set a briefing or hearing schedule on that appeal.
Unwired Planet concluded a second trial in the UK in
mid-December and expects to receive a ruling from the UK High Court
before the end of January 2016 on EP (UK) 2,119,287 and EP (UK)
2,485,514.
About Unwired Planet, Inc.
Unwired Planet, Inc. (NASDAQ:UPIP) is the inventor of the
Mobile Internet and a premier intellectual property
company focused exclusively on the mobile industry. The company's
patent portfolio of approximately 2,500 issued and pending US and
foreign patents, includes technologies that allow mobile devices to
connect to the Internet and enable mobile communications.
The portfolio spans 2G, 3G, and 4G technologies, as well as
cloud-based mobile applications and services. Unwired
Planet's portfolio includes patents related to key mobile
technologies, including baseband mobile communications, mobile
browsers, mobile advertising, push notification technology, maps
and location based services, mobile application stores, social
networking, mobile gaming, and mobile search. Unwired
Planet is headquartered in Los Altos, California.
References in this release to Unwired Planet may be
to Unwired Planet, Inc. or its subsidiaries.
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The Blueshirt GroupLauren Sloane,
415-217-2632Lauren@blueshirtgroup.com
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