Conversant Wireless Licensing S A R. L. v. Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd, Huawei Technologies (UK) and ZTE Corporation, High Court of Justice, Patents Court, Justice Henry Carr, Case No. [2018] EWHC 1216 (Ch)

Case management decision. Mr Justice Carr has given Huawei and ZTE permission to appeal his previous judgment regarding the UK court’s jurisdiction in their standards essential patent dispute against Conversant, in particular his decision that Conversant should be entitled to ask the UK court to set terms for a global FRAND licence, rather than a licence that was limited to the United Kingdom.

This is not surprising, given that this is a developing area of the law. However, the judge refused to stay the first instance proceedings pending the appeal. Noting his concerns about the potential for Huawei and ZTE to engage in hold-out, the judge made clear that in appropriate circumstances, the UK court could grant an injunction in circumstances where a standard essential patent was held to be infringed, where a patentee had made a FRAND offer and the defendant had not, as opposed to the “FRAND injunction” granted by Mr Justice Birss in the earlier Unwired Planet proceedings (also under appeal), which essentially only compelled a defendant to enter into a licence set by the court.

A copy of the decision can be read here.

Headnote: Graham Burnett-Hall, Marks & Clerk Solicitors