FRAND Developments In The Unified Patent Court: Where Do We Stand?

On 22 November 2024, in a case between Panasonic and OPPO, the Mannheim Local Division (LD) of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) handed down the first ever full-fledged substantive decision on the licensing of standard essential patents (SEPs) on Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) terms. The UPC had already dealt with FRAND cases in the context of procedural orders. Below we provide a brief overview of these developments, which are relevant to both SEP holders and implementers.

LD Mannheim decision

This case is part of a large patent enforcement campaign by Panasonic against OPPO and Xiaomi that started in 2023, with Panasonic invoking several SEPs relating to the 3G and 4G telecom standards. In the court's decision, which deals with one of the patents invoked (EP 2 568 724), the LD Mannheim ruled in favour of patentee Panasonic and granted an injunction.