1. On FOSS Patents, Florian Mueller published a post last week titled Mannheim court reverses position on FRAND defense: standard-essential patent injunctions become readily available again. The post discusses a decision of the Mannheim Landesgericht which adopts a narrow reading of Huawei v. ZTE, in effect allowing owners of FRAND-committed SEPs to obtain injunctions unless (1) the SEP owner has failed to make a FRAND offer, and (2) the implementer has made a FRAND counteroffer. In other words, according to the post, there could be an injunction if either (1) the SEP owner made a FRAND offer and the implementer did not accept it, even if the implementer made its own FRAND counteroffer, or (2) the implementer has not made a FRAND counteroffer, even if the SEP owner did not make an initial FRAND offer. If I understand correctly, there is no written decision yet.
Update: FOSS Patents' May 27 post states that during a trial last Friday in Mannheim, a different panel expressed "the same perspective on FRAND as before, thereby declining to perform the same about-face as Judge Dr. Kircher's panel" noted in the previous post. So now there may be a conflict within the Mannheim court on the interpretation of Huawei v. ZTE.
Update: FOSS Patents' May 27 post states that during a trial last Friday in Mannheim, a different panel expressed "the same perspective on FRAND as before, thereby declining to perform the same about-face as Judge Dr. Kircher's panel" noted in the previous post. So now there may be a conflict within the Mannheim court on the interpretation of Huawei v. ZTE.
2. On Bloomberg, Blake Brittain published an article titled Apple, Cisco Get $4.2 Million in Attorneys’ Fees in Patent Case. The case is Straight Path IP Group, Inc. v. Cisco Systems, Inc., Nos. C 16-03463 WHA, C 16-03582 WHA (N.D. Cal. May 19, 2020), a case the district judge described as one "which should never have been brought" (emphasis in original). Mr. Brittain's article links to the opinion, here. Nadia Dreid also covers the case, and links to the opinion, on Law360, in an article titled Apple, Cisco Get $4.2M In Fees After Rebuke For 'G-R-E-E-D', which highlights the fact that the fee award was less than half of what the defendants sought.
3. Of possible relevance to patents and other forms of IP, on Law360, David Ziegler published an article titled A Primer On Foreign Judgment Enforcement In Canada. The article states that "the common law in Canada is favorable toward the enforcement of foreign judgments," and discusses the two-pronged test the Canadian courts use to evaluate claims for enforcement.
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