Vestel Elektronik Sanayi Ve Ticaret A S & Anr –v- HEVC Advance LLC & Anr

2nd – 3rd  March 2021

The Claimants (Vestel) appeal, with part permission from HHJ Hacon, paragraphs 1 – 5 of his order dated 16 December 2019, sitting as a High Court Judge in the Patents Court (ChD), following his judgment dated 21 October 2019, whereby he declared the English Courts have no jurisdiction over the Defendants, set aside the Claim Form and Particulars of Claim against both Defendants and made consequential costs orders.

He held none of the necessary gateways for jurisdiction under English law were fulfilled as regards the First Defendant (Advance) and none of the requirements under Brussels 1 Regulation Recast were fulfilled as regards the Second Defendant (Philips).

The appeal concerns FRAND licensing in respect of standard essential patents (SEPs) to a video compression standard (high efficiency video coding, HVEC) used in televisions. Vestel make and sell televisions. Vestel brought a claim for declarations as to the terms of a licence that would be FRAND under the UK SEPs. Advance administers a patent pool of declared SEPs which includes UK SEPs (HEVCA pool). Philips owns SEPs in the pool, including UK SEPs.

The claim is said to be the reverse of the Unwired Planet [2018] EWCA Civ 2344 and Conversant [2019] EWCA Civ 38 cases in which the SEP owners brought actions to determine the appropriate relief for UK patent rights.

View hearing:

Day 1

Part 1

Part 2

Day 2

Part 1

Part 2