UK High Court recognizes Lenovo as willing licensee in landmark FRAND case

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Lenovo today announced that the UK High Court has ruled in Lenovo’s favor in the ongoing litigation with InterDigital regarding license rates for 3G, 4G, and 5G patents. This judgement reinforces the company’s continued commitment as a willing licensee and validates the license rate Lenovo advocated for.

This is a landmark decision of a Court establishing a modern global FRAND (Fair, Reasonable, and Non-discriminatory) rate for Standard Essential Patents (SEP).

Lenovo’s John Mulgrew, Vice President, Deputy General Counsel & Chief Intellectual Property Officer, welcomes the decision as follows:

“Lenovo thanks the Court for its judgment in InterDigital v. Lenovo. We see this as a major win for the technology industry and the customers we serve, as it underscores both the importance of fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms for patent licensing and the requirement of transparency by patent holders engaged in licensing practices.

We are grateful for the Court’s careful and objective analysis of the cellular patent licensing history between InterDigital and others, supporting its determination that InterDigital’s global cellular royalty rate should be $0.175 per unit. With this judgment, the Court has confirmed that Lenovo is, and always has been, a willing licensee – even in the face of InterDigital’s supra-FRAND offers and behavior as an unwilling licensor.

In the meantime, we are pleased that this judgment reinforces FRAND’s critical role in facilitating transparent and equitable licensing practices for standardized technologies – enabling the proliferation of affordable innovation to customers around the world.”

The full judgement will be available on the National Archive website later today under case number is HP-2019-000032.