FRAND Quarterly: Navigating the Global SEP Landscape – May 2025

Amazon and Nokia, as well as Lenovo and Ericsson, settled their global litigation campaigns. Ericsson sought to enforce injunctions against Lenovo and Motorola in Brazil and Colombia. Ericsson was also declared to be an “unwilling licensor” in the UK and Lenovo obtained a declaration of the terms of an interim license. Amazon was given permission to seek an interim license declaration and order for specific performance against Nokia based on Swiss law (the law governing Nokia’s RAND undertaking). If successful, this could have compelled Nokia to enter the declared interim license. However, Nokia enjoined Amazon in Germany and received positive indications in its U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) proceedings that could have resulted in an exclusionary order.

Ericsson sought to enforce injunctions against Lenovo and Motorola in Brazil and Colombia. Ericsson was also declared to be an “unwilling licensor” in the UK and Lenovo obtained a declaration of the terms of an interim license.

Amazon was given permission to seek an interim license declaration and order for specific performance against Nokia based on Swiss law (the law governing Nokia’s RAND undertaking). If successful, this could have compelled Nokia to enter the declared interim license. However, Nokia enjoined Amazon in Germany and received positive indications in its U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) proceedings that could have resulted in an exclusionary order.

Courts around the world continue to expand their toolkits that affect FRAND litigation strategies. UK courts continued to grant interim license declarations and/or permission to seek one. Common elements for a successful interim license declaration in Panasonic v Xiaomi, Lenovo v Ericsson and Alcatel & Nokia v Amazon have been: Of the jurisdictions in which the parties are litigating, the UK must be the only forum willing to set a full global FRAND license and the proceedings are progressing. The prospective licensee must have given an undertaking to enter the UK FRAND license. Foreign injunctions must have been sought or obtained by the SEP owner notwithstanding that the prospective licensee committed to a FRAND determination in the UK, evidencing a breach of the FRAND obligation. The SEP holder’s conduct, including in seeking foreign injunctions, is designed to extract better terms than what the UK court would order. The declaration could make the SEP holder reconsider its position and grant an interim license. The Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China issued its first ever anti anti-suit injunction in favor of Huawei, despite recognizing that SEP holders are generally limited in their ability to obtain injunctive relief. Following this decision, it appears that an anti anti-suit injunction is viable in China following a preliminarily finding from a lower court that the prospective licensee is not willing, while the SEP licensor is. The Court of Justice of the European Union issued a landmark ruling on jurisdiction in cross-border patent disputes. Any EU Member State court remains competent to decide an infringement case of a patent of any other country, even when invalidity is raised as a defence and even if national law requires separate revocation proceedings. Although the jurisdiction is only triggered depending on the defendants’ domicile, the case potentially opens up an alternative pan-European injunction opportunity in SEP cases, other than the UPC.

UK courts continued to grant interim license declarations and/or permission to seek one. Common elements for a successful interim license declaration in Panasonic v Xiaomi, Lenovo v Ericsson and Alcatel & Nokia v Amazon have been: Of the jurisdictions in which the parties are litigating, the UK must be the only forum willing to set a full global FRAND license and the proceedings are progressing. The prospective licensee must have given an undertaking to enter the UK FRAND license. Foreign injunctions must have been sought or obtained by the SEP owner notwithstanding that the prospective licensee committed to a FRAND determination in the UK, evidencing a breach of the FRAND obligation. The SEP holder’s conduct, including in seeking foreign injunctions, is designed to extract better terms than what the UK court would order. The declaration could make the SEP holder reconsider its position and grant an interim license.

Of the jurisdictions in which the parties are litigating, the UK must be the only forum willing to set a full global FRAND license and the proceedings are progressing.