Koninklijke Philips N.V. v. WIKO, Court of Appeal The Hague, The Netherlands, 16 April 2019, Case No. 200.219.487/01

Philips holds EP 1623511 for a ‘Communication System’. In first instance, the District Court of The Hague ruled in favor of Wiko’s invalidity counter claim and concluded that the invoked claim 1 of EP ‘511 was invalid due to a lack of novelty, as all of the claim’s sub-elements were disclosed before the priority date of EP ‘511, namely in the CDMA2000 mobile communications standard as developed by the standard-setting organization 3GPP2. A copy of that decision can be read here.

Philips appealed this judgment and on appeal submits various auxiliary requests. The Court of Appeal rules that in light of the auxiliary requests and due to the fact that other alleged novelty destroying documents do not directly and unambiguously disclose the invention, EP ‘511 is deemed to be novel. According to the Court of Appeal Wiko insufficiently argued lack of inventive step. Further, Wiko has not denied that it markets phones that read upon the standard, thus it is established that Wiko infringes claim 1 of Philips’ second auxiliary request.

The final decision shall follow after oral pleadings that focus on the FRAND defence. After these pleadings, the Court of Appeal shall rule if Philips is entitled to an injunction.

A copy of the decision (in Dutch) can be read here.