Daimler will challenge Nokia’s German patent win
German carmaker Daimler, which owns the Mercedes brand, is facing a potential sales ban in Germany after a Mannheim court ruled today, August 18, that it infringed a Nokia telecommunications patent.
But a Daimler spokesperson confirmed to WIPR that the company would challenge the decision, and did not expect any interruption in production or sales.
“We do not understand the decision of the Mannheim Regional Court and will appeal against it,” the spokesperson said.
The decision is one of the first major victories for Nokia in a protracted dispute over the telecommunications capabilities of modern ‘smart cars’.
The Finnish telecommunications company is a market leader in patents essential to telecommunications standards, but Daimler says it has refused to make the technology available on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.
In particular, Daimler accused Nokia of refusing to directly grant licenses to the German company’s suppliers. But Nokia says the responsibility is on Daimler to take out a licence for the technology used in its cars.
Jenni Lukander, president of Nokia Technologies, welcomed today’s decision as a “major endorsement of the long-term engineering work by innovators at Nokia and the important principle that innovators should receive a fair reward for the use of their inventions”.
“We hope that Daimler will now accept its obligations and take a license on fair terms,” Lukander added.
The Mannheim court chose not to refer the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), despite a request to do so from Germany’s Federal Cartel Office.
The German antitrust regulator said the dispute had raised “general antitrust issues which are relevant beyond the scope of this particular case”.
The issues identified by the Cartel Office concern who should be the licensee for standard-essential patents (SEP).
SEP owners generally prefer to license to end-product manufacturers, like carmakers, because this offers more lucrative royalties.
Daimler says Nokia has an obligation to make its patents available to “all users” who wish to take a licence on FRAND terms, including component suppliers.
“Fair and non-discriminatory access to these standards for all users of the patents essential for telecommunications standards is an important prerequisite for the development of new products and services for vehicle connectivity,” the Daimler spokesperson said.
In a press release, the Mannheim court said it did not consider a referral to the CJEU to be “appropriate”.
Klaka partner Constantin Kurtz told WIPR that the standard custom was for first-instance courts, such as the Mannheim Regional Court, not to refer questions to the CJEU.
“The German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) prefers to decide by itself which questions should be referred to the CJEU,” he said. Kurtz added: “Thus, the comity between the German courts usually requires that the lower courts do not refer questions to the CJEU but wait until the BGH does it in possible (further) appeal proceedings. The Federal Cartel Office is well aware of these customs.”
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