Mitsubishi Electric and Sisvel take TCL to court over patents
Mitsubishi Electric and Sisvel International have claimed that China-headquartered TCL’s mobile devices and data terminals infringe three standard-essential patents.
The suit, filed Friday, May 27, at the US District Court for the Central District of California, alleged that devices sold by TCL and its subsidiary TCT Mobile over the past six years, which are capable of communicating over Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless, infringe the three patents.
“Each of the accused instrumentalities is marketed by defendants to be LTE-compatible, ie, compliant with the LTE standard, either expressly as ‘LTE’ or by reference to compatibility with ‘4G’ compliant networks, which also requires such devices to be compatible with the LTE standard,” said the claim.
The patents allegedly being infringed relate to technology for cellular communications networks, including variations or generations of cellular communication network technology such as LTE.
Mitsubishi Electric and Sisvel assert that at least one claim of each patent is essential under the LTE standard.
Each of the patents has been assigned to Mitsubishi Electric by the inventors who were employed by the company at the time. Sisvel has a licence to assert the patents in the US, along with the right to sublicense and to grant releases and covenants not to sue.
Back in 2014, Sisvel offered TCL a licence to its patents that are essential to the 4G cellular standard. According to the suit, additional communications were sent over the next few years.
Mitsubishi Electric and Sisvel have asked the court to find that TCL has infringed the three patents and to award damages for the infringement.
This isn’t the first time the pair have accused smartphone makers of infringement. In June last year, Mitsubishi Electric and Sisvel settled their global dispute with China-based Xiaomi, ending litigation across courts in China, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK that began in 2019.
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