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3 November 2020PatentsSarah Morgan

German court lifts Lenovo injunction in Nokia dispute

A German appeals court has lifted the enforcement of an injunction secured by Nokia against Lenovo in a standard-essential patent (SEP) suit.

Last month, Nokia enforced its injunction against Lenovo in Germany, following the judgment of the Munich Regional Court the month before.

The Munich court had found that Lenovo was infringing one of Nokia’s SEPs relating to H.264 video compression technology and rejected Lenovo’s fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) argument.

But yesterday, November 2, the Munich Higher Regional Court - Cartel Senate (Sixth Senate) granted Lenovo’s request to stay enforcement of the Munich ruling “based on the high probability that the decision cannot be expected to be upheld on appeal”.

Nokia, in response, said that the appeals court’s decision to lift the injunction temporarily “does not signal that they would side with Lenovo on the merits of the case”. Nokia added that it was confident its case would hold on appeal.

A spokesperson for Lenovo added: “This is a landmark case for the technology industry and one that we continue to fight as it sets the future stage for ensuring unreasonable global patent licensing fees do not hinder customer access to affordable innovation.”

The stay will be for the duration of Lenovo’s appeal against the patent ruling.

Daimler disputes

Last week, the Munich Regional Court ordered an injunction against Daimler in its high-profile clash with Nokia over SEPs.

Nokia had accused Daimler of infringing European patent EP 13 88 234, a patent essential for the Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service standard.

The Munich court sided with Nokia, ordering damages and injunctive relief. Nokia can enforce the judgment against a security deposit of €18 million ($21 million).

A spokesperson for Nokia said: “Two German courts have now concluded that Nokia has acted in a fair and reasonable way and Daimler is using our inventions without authorisation.

“The time has come for Daimler to do the right thing and agree a licence on the same fair terms as many other car companies. There is more to gain if we work together to bring innovation to consumers rather than fight in the courts.”

Daimler has confirmed that it will appeal against the decision and that it does not expect any halt to production or sales.

“We have a different legal opinion on the question of how to license patents in the automotive industry that are essential for telecommunications standards. We believe that a company cannot be prohibited from using such patents if its suppliers are willing to pay a corresponding license. We will have this question clarified in the course of the appeal proceeding,” said a spokesperson for the company.

This is one of ten cases Nokia has brought against Daimler in Germany. The Düsseldorf Regional Court is expected to hand down its decision in the patent licensing suit between the pair later in November.

In August, Nokia secured its first win against Daimler in Mannheim, after the Mannheim Regional Court found Daimler was infringing a telecoms patent. Nokia has not applied to enforce this injunction, which has a bond of €7 billion, and Daimler has appealed against the decision.

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