Lenovo Group Limited & Ors (claimants/appellants) v Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ) (defendant/respondent)
Tuesday 18 February 2025
Appeal against the Order of Richards J dated 27 November 2024 that dismissed the Short-Term Licence Application.
The Claimants and Defendants (Lenovo and Ericsson respectively) own standard essential patents (SEPs) which have been declared to various cellular standards promulgated by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). Pursuant to ETSI’s policy on intellectual property rights (the ETSI IPR Policy) both Lenovo and Ericsson have given undertakings (the FRAND Commitment) to offer licences of those SEPs to implementors on terms that are fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND).
Both Lenovo and Ericsson need to work patents and inventions of the other group. Lenovo uses Ericsson’s patents in its business of making and selling smartphones, tablets and notebook computers (User Equipment). Ericsson uses Lenovo’s patents in its infrastructure business. Accordingly, both groups recognise that they need a cross-licence on FRAND terms to enable them to work SEPs owned by the other group (a FRAND Cross-Licence). However, to date they have not been able to agree the terms of such a cross-licence. Moreover, since October 2023 both groups have sought injunctions and similar orders that seek to restrain the exploitation of each other’s SEPs in a number of jurisdictions.
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