Germany’s Mannheim Regional Court announced this morning that Apple did not infringe the IPCom patents alleged to be essential to the 3G/UMTS standard. As discussed in our February 6, 2013 post, IPCom was seeking over $2 billion from Apple for infringement of European Patent EP1841268 and related German patent DE19910239 alleged to be essential
German Patent Monetization Entity, IPCom, Seeking $2 Billion from Apple for SEP Infringement
In the midst of ongoing litigation against Nokia and HTC abroad, German patent monetization firm IPCom’s claim of patent infringement against Apple will be heard before Germany’s Mannheim Regional Court next Tuesday, February 11 (see our Januray 2013 post for some additional information on how patent litigation and RAND issues are handled in Germany). IPCom
Microsoft asks Washington court for permission to try to renew and expand “anti-suit injunction” against Motorola
Microsoft and Motorola are currently hurtling toward an August 26 jury trial in their RAND breach of contract dispute in Seattle. But it looks like the SEP disputes between the parties are not limited to the United States, however. In a letter filed with Judge James L. Robart’s court yesterday, Microsoft claims that it was
Microsoft-Motorola RAND case update: Microsoft accuses Motorola of violating the Google/FTC consent decree, and a potential H.264 license agreement in Germany
Even though the trial in the Microsoft-Motorola RAND dispute took place over three months ago, there’s been a lot going on in Washington lately. In addition to the arguments regarding the relevance of the Google-MPEG LA AVC/H.264 patent license agreement, recall that a couple weeks ago, Judge James L. Robart granted Motorola’s request to submit additional information that may be relevant to determining the RAND rate. Late Friday, both Motorola and Microsoft filed these documents with the court — documents that may actually raise more issues than they help resolve (and may ultimately have no bearing on Judge Robart’s decision).
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A RANDom glance abroad: German Patent Courts and the “Orange Book” defense
While much of the attention over standard-essential patent litigation focuses on disputes taking place in the United States, the U.S. is not the only venue seeing these showdowns. SEP-related issues have also arisen in Australia, in Korea, and in Europe (both in the courts and in European Commission investigations). The courts in Germany — which has recently become a hotbed for patent litigation — have developed a unique procedure for dealing with the assertion of standard essential patents. Named for a 2009 decision by the Federal Supreme Court of Germany, this is commonly known as the “Orange Book” defense or procedure (or sometimes as the dolo agit or good faith defense). In this post, we aim to provide a background of this case and some examples of cases where the Orange Book defense has been invoked.
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