Lenovo should pay $138.7 million for InterDigital patents – London court docket

LONDON (Reuters) – China’s Lenovo Group (OTC:) Ltd should pay U.S. know-how agency InterDigital (NASDAQ:) Inc $138.7 million for a licence for its portfolio of telecommunications patents, London’s Excessive Courtroom dominated on Thursday within the newest spherical of a long-running dispute.

InterDigital introduced the lawsuit towards Lenovo in 2019 over the phrases on which Lenovo ought to take a licence of its patents that are important to 3G, 4G and 5G requirements.

The litigation, which has to date featured 5 separate trials, centres on the truthful, cheap and non-discriminatory (FRAND) phrases of a licence for InterDigital’s patents.

Choose James Mellor stated in a written ruling on Thursday that earlier affords made by each Lenovo and InterDigital – which had supplied $337 million for a six-year licence – weren’t made on FRAND phrases.

He stated Lenovo ought to pay a $138.7 million “lump sum” to cowl previous and future gross sales of cell units from 2007 till the top of 2023.

Lenovo described the ruling as “a serious win for the know-how business and the purchasers we serve”.

John Mulgrew, Lenovo’s chief mental property officer, stated in a press release the choice “reinforces FRAND’s crucial function in facilitating clear and equitable licensing practices for standardized applied sciences”.

InterDigital’s Chief Authorized Officer Josh Schmidt welcomed what he stated was the ruling’s recognition that “a licensee ought to pay in full for the previous infringement of normal important patents”.

Nevertheless, he stated in a press release: “We plan to enchantment, as we consider that sure features of the choice don’t precisely mirror our licensing program.”

London-based patent lawyer Mark Marfe, who was not concerned within the case, stated the choice strengthened the Excessive Courtroom’s willingness to grant a worldwide FRAND licence.

China is the one different jurisdiction the place courts have set international FRAND charges for so-called commonplace important patents.

Marfe added that “all eyes shall be on the Unified Patent Courtroom”, a typical patent court docket for European Union member states which opens in June, to see whether or not it takes an identical strategy.