Huawei slapped with FRAND injunction by English High Court
Huawei has been hit with a new form of injunction by the English High Court after failing to accept a licence that the court had found to be fair and reasonable.
In April, WIPR reported that the court had backed licensing company Unwired Planet in its patent dispute with Chinese technology business Huawei.
Unwired Planet sued Huawei, Samsung and Google in March 2014, alleging infringement of six UK patents.
Five of these were claimed to be essential for various telecommunications standards, such as 3G and 4G.
Under the European Telecommunications Standards Institute’s policy, a patentee declaring patents as standard-essential commits to licensing them on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.
In July that year Unwired Planet made an offer to license its standard-essential patents (SEPs) portfolio, but this was rejected by the defendants as not meeting FRAND standards.
Google subsequently settled over the SEPs in the summer of 2015 and Samsung settled a year later.
The main dispute to be resolved was whether and to what extent various terms on offer are or would be FRAND.
Mr Justice Birss held that a worldwide licence would not be contrary to competition law and that “willing and reasonable parties” would agree on a worldwide licence, meaning that Unwired Planet was entitled to insist on it.
According to Birss, an injunction ought to be granted because Huawei stands before the court without a licence but has the means to become licensed open to it.
On Wednesday, June 7, Birss handed down a new form of injunction, what he called a “FRAND injunction”.
Huawei had argued that the court should accept its undertakings pending appeal (entering into a licence following appeal and abiding by the terms of the licence as if it was in effect until its appeal was finished), and not grant an injunction.
Birss held that an injunction should be granted, but included a provision that it will cease to have effect if the defendant enters into a FRAND licence.
“If, as in this case, the FRAND licence is for a limited time, shorter than the lifetime of the relevant patents, then the injunction should also be subject to an express liberty to either party to return to court in future to address the position at the end of the term of the FRAND licence,” said Birss.
The injunction will be stayed pending the result of Huawei’s appeal.
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