Posted by ipeg on March 21st, 2011
Nokia, one of the leading mobile communications suppliers, is further put under pressure in its patent fight against IPCom. Recently, the Finnish company was the losing party in a patent infringement suit before the German regional court LG Mannheim on the infringement of a particular GSM and UMTS standard essential patent held by the IPCom GmbH, Munich. The recent judgment could be a turning point in a whole range of infringement and invalidity proceedings which are currently pending before courts in Europe.
The dispute about the patent...
Posted by ipeg on April 1st, 2010
Netherlands’ The Hague District Court Orange-Book decision brings up again the discussion about the compulsory licensing defense and the role of antitrust in patent infringement proceedings. Opposing’s Germany highest court the Dutch Court denies the possibility of responding with a compulsory licensing defense in a patent infringement proceeding. How damaging is it that two major patent courts in Europe differ on such important issues? After all, we are supposed to have a harmonized European legal order in patent cases....
Posted by ipeg on March 19th, 2010
In a combined court case between Philips and SK Kassetten regarding CD- and DVD-technology (CD-R and DVD+R disks), the District Court of The Hague (Netherlands) ruled in favor of Philips, in a case that may revive the discussion about essential patents and competition law defenses (i.e. license under FRAND[1] terms). In our earlier blog we reported on the Orange-Book decision of the German Federal Supreme Court (of 6 May 2009), in which it affirmed the option for the defendant to raise a competition or antitrust …
Posted by ipeg on November 10th, 2009
Lately patent infringing issues arising from implementing standard compliant products are catching the news media, among which in Europe the decision in Orange-Book-Standard by the German Bundesgerichthof (BGH). In the US Nokia sued Apple for producing it top selling iPhone compliant with the telecommunication standards GSM, UMTS and the networking standard WIFI, alleging 10 Nokia patents infringed. While these patents have been licensed by 40 other companies, including all major vendors of mobile devices, only Apple has refused to agree...
Posted by ipeg on September 14th, 2009
The recent German Federal Supreme Court ruling Orange-Book-Standard (BGH, 5/6/2009 – KZR 39/06) seems to be a strong attack on one of the core features of intellectual property rights: the provision of an injunctive relief in (patent) infringement proceedings. In the context of standardized technology the Federal Supreme Court concludes that an injunctive relief is exposed to the widely known “competition law defence” under special circumstances. It may result in Germany being a NPE walhalla. However, there is light at the end of...
European IP Case Law (IPPT)