EU Court Reins In Legal Battles Over Mobile-Phone Patents

The European Union’s top court set limits on the ability of mobile-phone makers owning key industry patents to use court injunctions to thwart competitors seeking to use the technology in their own equipment. Huawei Technologies Co. and other mobile-phone makers that own a so-called standard-essential patent can go to court seeking to bar rivals from using it -- or to ban their products -- only if they have met strict conditions, the EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg ruled on July 16. Owners of such key patents that previously committed “to grant third parties a license on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms” can only seek an injunction if first they present to the alleged infringer “a specific written offer for a license,” the court said. The European Commission, the EU’s antitrust watchdog, has also sought to rein in patent abuses as Motorola Mobility, Microsoft Corp., Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. trade victories in courts across the world on intellectual property. Industry-standard technology helps ensure products such as mobile-phone antennas and global-positioning system software can operate together when made by different manufacturers.

“This is the most important decision of the year in the field of patent enforcement and intellectual property,” said Axel Walz, a Munich-based lawyer specializing in IP and competition law with law firm King & Wood Mallesons. “It provides clear, useful guidelines for how the patent user and holder should behave” in disputes related to standard-essential patents, said Walz. “But the devil is in the details.”