Huawei and Samsung lose High Court patent fight against Unwired Planet

Unwired Planet Inc. won the first in a series of London patent trials against Samsung Electronics Co. and Huawei Technologies Co. over technology used in mobile phones.

The interim judgment was passed by the UK Patents Court against as many as 8 parties including Samsung, Huawei, Google and its subsidiaries, and Ericsson earlier this year in July 2015.

Following a two-week trial in October, the court found that Unwired Planet holds a valid patent that is infringed by “wireless telecommunications networks which operate relevant LTE standard, and thus is essential to the LTE standard, known as 3GPP TS 36.322 release 8 version 8.8.0”, Unwired Planet said.

Unwired Planet is appealing that decision. The value of those patents remains uncertain because it depends on the outcome of lawsuits and negotiations with phone makers over fees Unwired Planet charges to use the technology.

Samsung said it was confident it had not infringed Unwired Planet’s patents and would “continue to take all necessary measures to prove that our products are built on our decades of research and development”. As a result of the MSA-related defenses Ericsson was also joined to the proceedings.

The judge said Unwired Planet had also sued Google, but that dispute had settled.

But a judge has ruled in favour of Unwired Planet after a hearing in a Patents Court – which is part of the High Court – in London.

The ruling covers the first of five United Kingdom infringement trials scheduled to occur through the summer of 2016.

Another trial is scheduled for October 2016 in which the English High Court will consider how to apply fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) licensing principles to the SEPs at issue in the series of cases.