Sisvel and Swiss tech company resolve patent antitrust dispute
A California court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Swiss technology company u-blox against patent pool operator Sisvel after the parties agreed to settle.
Judge Janis Sammartino of the US District Court for the Southern District of California issued an order on Friday, September 25, dismissing u-blox’s complaint that Sisvel had violated antitrust law.
Filed in March this year, the suit accused Sisvel of refusing to license its standard-essential patents (SEPs) on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms and conditions.
Sisvel’s 3G/4G patent portfolio includes more than 80 patent families, comprising more than 1,200 individual patents.
In its claim, u-blox said that Sisvel’s had acquired ownership of the alleged SEPs from companies including Nokia, Mitsubishi and Orange.
“In acquiring these alleged SEPs, Sisvel intentionally sought to accumulate and aggregate them into a portfolio with a dominant position in the market for licensing them, and improperly seek unreasonable royalty rates,” said the claim.
U-blox had also claimed that Sisvel had attempted to damage u-blox’s relationships with its customers “in a blatant attempt to coerce u-blox to enter into a licence that is not on FRAND terms”.
This included ignoring the Swiss company’s request for a FRAND licence and targeting u-blox’s customers and downstream manufacturers with demand letters and litigation.
Now, the parties have settled the dispute and u-blox has obtained a multi-year global licence covering the sale of u-blox’s 2G, 3G and 4G products.
David Muus, programme manager of Sisvel’s mobile communication programme (which comprises Sisvel’s cellular patents), said: “Along the way of resolving our disagreement we were surprised, in a good way, to find opportunities with u-blox to work together in the future. Especially in these trying times of the coronavirus, trade tensions and economic uncertainty, it is welcome to turn a dispute into cooperation.”
Kent Baker, the head of licensing for u-blox’s cellular communication division, said that the company was pleased Sisvel was open to learning about the needs and realities of the Internet of Things and automotive markets segments u-blox serves, “markets that are very different from traditional cellular handset markets”.
He added: “Not all patent holders are willing to understand the demands of the non-handset market segments and then negotiate to reach agreement based on that understanding. Our discussions exemplified two companies' working to find mutually beneficial opportunities with an eye towards the future.”
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