FRAND Licensing In Germany – The Recent Düsseldorf Decision

The findings from the recent Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf decision Mobiles Kommunikationssystem have established a new framework that should be followed when courts are benchmarking standard-essential patents (SEP) licence offers. The court has commented on which requirements are to be placed on the infringement notice, the licence request and the licence offer and how far the court's examination duty reaches. The decision takes a step toward solutions that balance the interests of the parties. The case is now pending before the Federal Supreme Court and it is hoped that the case will provide legal practitioners with a benchmark for evaluating a licence offer as fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND). Please refer to the full article by Dr Anette Gärtner in the current issue of the Mitteilungen der dt. Patentanwälte for further commentary.