I am now back from Munich, after having spent several days conducting research at the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property and Competition Law in connection with my two pending book projects. I also had a very enjoyable time speaking at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität last week on the topic of extraterritorial damages, and spending time with professional colleagues and friends, including some new ones.
The big news from the world of patent law, of course, was announced just as I was departing, namely that the European Commission was withdrawing its draft SEP Regulation. I’m not sure that’s a huge surprise, given all the criticism that had been leveled against the draft over the past (nearly) two years—though to be fair, there were many defenders as well, including some who hoped that the Commission would succeed in establishing its proposed nonbinding FRAND determination procedure, as a tool for assisting courts in deciding what terms may or may not be FRAND. Anyway, there has been a range of opinion on the matter over the past few days, including posts on JUVE Patent, IAM, IP Watchdog, and ip fray; and OxFirst will be putting on a webinar addressing this topic among others on February 27, with Nokia’s Clemens Heusch and Xiaomi’s Le Chen scheduled to speak (registration information here).
Big news expected for next week includes the decision of the OLG Munich in HMD
Global Oy v. VoiceAge EMS, which is expected to address the EC amicus brief’s
interpretation of Huawei v. ZTE.
Indications at the preliminary hearing in late October were that the OLG
was receptive to the EC’s arguments; two UPC panels, by contrast, were not so
enthusiastic, to put it mildly, so this should be interesting. I will plan to read and blog about the
decision as soon as it is available. In addition, SEP
mavens will be awaiting Tuesday's hearing of the EWCA concerning whether
Lenovo may be entitled to an interim license in its dispute with Ericsson. The hearing will be live streamed, here.
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