Standard Essential Patents: Telecoms

OPTIS AND UNWIRED PLANET V APPLE

• The Court of Appeal recently dismissed an appeal from Apple in the latest stage of a long-running dispute against Optis and Unwired Planet.
• Upholding Meade J's decision in the High Court, Arnold LJ held that Apple must take a FRAND injunction¹, with terms to be agreed by the court, to restrain them from infringing EP 2229744 B1.
• Addressing Apple's argument "that the judge's interpretation deprives an implementer who has been found to infringe a SEP of the choice between taking the Court-Determined Licence, once its terms are known, and submitting to an injunction", Arnold LJ held that "The key words in this argument are "once its terms are known". The argument assumes that an implementer who has been found to infringe a SEP is entitled to the luxury of being able to wait until the court has determined what terms are FRAND before deciding whether to take a licence on those terms or not, and to continue to infringe the SEP in