EPLAW PATENT BLOG

UK – Unwired Planet v. Huawei and Samsung – CAT Referral

Posted: May 3rd, 2016

Unwired Planet International Ltd v. Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd et al., High Court of Justice, Chancery Division, Patents Court, 29 April 2016, Neutral Citation Number: [2016] EWHC 958 (Pat)

Samsung filed an application requesting that the competition law aspects of the Unwired Planet v. Huawei and Samsung case should be transferred to the Competition Appeal Tribunal (the CAT).Justice Birss, in his own words “not with some regret”, declines to transfer this case to the CAT.

“I do not think it is practical to divide the decision making in this way given the centrality of FRAND to this case.  If the issues are split the tribunal would have to be constantly mindful about who should be making a particular decision.  The interrelationship between the issues makes that problem worse, not better.  If the legal landscape was clear, again it might be a different matter, but it is not.  Transferring competition law FRAND but not transferring contractual FRAND would be a recipe for confusion.”

A copy of the judgment can be found here.

 

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