Monday, March 31, 2014

Over Samsung's objection, judge allows video showing Apple products in patentability context

I wasn't going to comment on the new Apple v. Samsung trial until after the parties' opening argument, but I've changed plans because Judge Koh made a decision I really wouldn't have expected. That decision, all by itself, could easily give rise to a retrial. (I see a fairly high likelihood of a post-appeal retrial anyway when I compare the damages theories allowed by Judge Koh to what the highest-ranking U.S. patent judge, Chief Judge Randall Rader of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, said on September 11, 2013 about a Motorola damages claim against Apple. In that case, the Chief Judge found a damages claim of $300 million over "one patent in a crowded field" downright "crazy"; at the trial starting later today, Apple is apparently seeking $2 billion over five patents, i.e., an average of $400 million for each patent in a crowded field.)

Samsung had objected to Apple's proposal to show to jurors a Federal Judicial Conference video that shows people using Apple products and highlights Apple products in the context of patentability criteria such as novelty. Samsung argued that the previous version of that video, which was shown to the summer 2012 Apple v. Samsung jury in the same district, should be used because it can serve the same purpose without being prejudicial to Samsung. But late on Sunday, Judge Koh overruled this objection, without citing any reason.

This decision marks a surprising departure from Judge Koh's previously consistent efforts to ensure a level playing field for Samsung in Apple's home court. It's even more surprising in light of Judge Koh's recent reference to empirical evidence of national bias by U.S. juries in patent cases against foreign companies. If Judge Koh is (rightly) concerned about such bias, for which there is even statistical evidence (which she cited), I thought it would have been a no-brainer for her to just simply use the same video as at the summer 2012 trial instead of one that is, in some parts, like a propaganda video for Apple's innovative capacity.

I think the video overstates Apple's contributions to innovation. On the one hand, there's no doubt that the iPhone and the iPad changed and created entire product categories. On the other hand, in the context of patent law it's key to consider what existed before. Apple's European patent infringement lawsuits against Samsung, Motorola Mobility and (to the extent they were even adjudged) HTC have been a total failure -- mostly non-wins and not a single lasting win -- because the (unbiased) judges over here found with respect to (almost) each and every Apple patent that came to judgment after a challenge that whatever Apple added on top of the prior art, if anything, was not inventive by European engineering-focused standards.

The only thing worse than showing this video to jurors that could be done to manipulate jurors would be to bring the "Steve Jobs patents exhibition" to San Jose and give the jury a guided tour through it before the trial starts.

It would be wrong to say that Judge Koh generally sides with Apple. In the single most important context to Apple, its pursuit of a permanent injunction, Judge Koh has twice (before and after a partly-successful appeal) agreed with Samsung that Apple failed to establish a causal nexus between the infringements identified (which are now being apppealed) and the alleged irreparable harm. I had actually thought in both cases that Apple was going to win an injunction of some scope -- maybe not over all of the asserted patents, but over some of them.

But before the trial in the second Apple v. Samsung case has even started, I'm concerned (because I am, quite frankly, tired of all those Apple-Samsung trials) that whatever Apple may win at this trial will be tainted and might face a really rough ride on appeal, which means that another group of jurors may have to be selected and spend weeks in court because things weren't handled correctly and fairly the first time.

Unlike Apple, I have been consistent over the years on issues like this. In May 2012 Apple indicated in a court filing that it would ask the court to obscure the Samsung logo on monitors in the courthouse because it could be prejudicial to Apple, and this is what I wrote back then:

"At first sight, this may seem very funny, but I actually understand why Apple would make this request: at a conscious level, it can show to jurors that Samsung actually contributes technology to the U.S. government, and at a subconscious level, it creates the impression of the court being Samsung territory."

I now support Samsung for the same reasons for which I supported Apple then. I find Judge Koh's decision very troubling.

[Update] I summed up my pre-trial position on Twitter and Google+ as follows: "Apple deserves to emerge victorious from the trial, but only on subset of claims, not to the tune of $2 billion, not with propaganda videos." As for the first part, Apple had a more favorable claim construction outcome, and it is taking five patents to trial vs. two Samsung patents. I'm not doing any work for Apple or Samsung, have never done any, and won't do any anytime soon. I plan to release my app on Android (the most popular platform on a worldwide basis, and the platform of my choice) first, but also on iOS later. [/Update]

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Saturday, March 29, 2014

Your thoughts, please: what license fees should Apple and Samsung agree on to settle their global patent dispute?

[Update on April 15, 2014] Thanks to everyone for your comments, which I really appreciated. I am now going to publish my own settlement proposal on the occasion of the third anniversary of the outbreak of this dispute. Please don't send any more comments on this question. [/Update]

I'm not going to do the usual preview post listing patents, products etc. before the trial in the second Apple v. Samsung litigation in the Northern District of California kicks off. I won't blog about the trial per se until after both parties' opening arguments. But almost three years after the first lawsuit was filed, it's anything but premature to think and talk about the terms on which they should settle their worldwide dispute with cases pending in at least ten countries. It took Apple less than two years to settle with Nokia (where it ended up the net payer) and less than three years to settle with HTC (where Apple is on the receiving end of the royalties). At least 29 royalty-bearing Android patent license agreements are known, most of which were concluded without the need for any litigation.

I have an opinion on what would be fair and reasonable terms based on today's state of the battle. Obviously, whatever seems to be the right choice now could appear less than fair for one party or the other further down the road. It's all a question of leverage. But that need not prevent us from thinking about what would make sense if they wanted to reach an 11th hour settlement now.

While I have my own opinion, I would like to encourage you, the sophisticated readership of this blog -- apart from those of you who are involved with that dispute, of course (that would be too sophisticated) -- to share your thoughts with me ([Update on April 15, 2014] Thanks for the comments you sent. Please don't send more comments now. [/Update] I won't publish your names, and I can't promise that I'll publish many of your comments, but I'd really like to know what the world out there thinks. I'll be able to consider your answers until I update this post accordingly and ask you not to send any further messages. (By the way, I won't be able to send you a personal thank you note, but please do know that I will be silently grateful.)

How much should Samsung pay to Apple per smartphone or tablet? How much should Apple fork over to Samsung per iPhone or iPad for its standard-essential and other patents? Should only one party pay? Should they enter into a zero-zero cross-license (no money changing hands at all), as Samsung presumably did with Google and Cisco? What seems reasonable to you in light of their leverage in litigation and their contributions to innovation? Feel free to send your thoughts with or without your rationale.

Now I hope I'll strike the right balance and provide you with helpful information while not trying to influence your thinking more than necessary:

So, all things considered, if you were a mediator making a proposal to the parties for a settlement that you think is reasonably acceptable to both, what would you say? Please let me know.

[Update on April 15, 2014] Thanks to everyone for your comments, which I really appreciated. I am now going to publish my own settlement proposal on the occasion of the third anniversary of the outbreak of this dispute. Please don't send any more comments on this question. [/Update]

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Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Microsoft announces license agreement with Dell, its 23rd known Android patent deal (29 in total)

Earlier today I blogged about the Licensing Executives Society, which wants to "make the world better through [patent] licensing". Now I have three new Android-related patent license agreements to add to my list, and the most significant one of the three was just announced today: Microsoft and Dell signed a patent licensing agreement under which "they agreed on royalties for Dell’s products running the Android or Chrome platforms and on consideration to Dell for a license from Microsoft for Xbox gaming consoles".

On February 20, Microsoft also announced an Android- and Chrome-related patent license deal with Hop-on. I missed that announcement and found out about it (via Twitter) a week or two later. The announcement said that "Microsoft will receive royalties from Hop-on under the agreement".

Hop-on was Microsoft's 22nd known Android patent licensee, and Dell is now the 23rd.

And the third addition to the list of royalty-bearing Android patent license agreements is a settlement between Samsung and Vertical Computer Systems. On March 21, the parties filed the following information with the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas:

"Pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 41(a)(1)(A)(ii) and 41(c), Plaintiff Vertical Computer Systems, Inc. ('Vertical') and Defendant s Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and Samsung Electronics America, Inc. (the 'Samsung Defendants') hereby stipulate to dismiss with prejudice: all claims by Vertical against the Samsung Defendants; and all counterclaims by the Samsung Defendants against Vertical. Each party shall bear its own costs of suit and attorneys' fees."

LG already settled the same litigation in October. Just like in the LG case, it's a safe assumption that Vertical received some kind of payment, though it's another question whether any presumed payment is significant relative to Samsung's huge volume of Android devices (it's probably not a big deal for Samsung, but I'm just guessing; I'm sure it benefits Vertical, and Vertical may now, after the settlements it obtained, be encouraged to go after other Android device makers).

Here's an updated list of all known deals:

  1. April 27, 2010: Microsoft Announces Patent Agreement With HTC

  2. June 27, 2011: Microsoft and General Dynamics Itronix Sign Patent Agreement ("Agreement will cover General Dynamics Itronix devices running the Android platform.") (FOSS Patents coverage)

  3. June 29, 2011: Microsoft and Velocity Micro, Inc., Sign Patent Agreement Covering Android-Based Devices (FOSS Patents coverage)

  4. June 30, 2011: Microsoft and Onkyo Corp. Sign Patent Agreement Covering Android-Based Tablets (FOSS Patents coverage)

  5. July 5, 2011: Microsoft and Wistron Sign Patent Agreement ("Agreement will cover Wistron's Android tablets, smartphones and e-readers.") (FOSS Patents coverage)

  6. September 8, 2011: Microsoft and Acer Sign Patent License Agreement ("Agreement will cover Acer's Android tablets and smartphones.") (FOSS Patents coverage)

  7. September 8, 2011: Microsoft and ViewSonic Sign Patent Agreement ("Agreement will cover ViewSonic's Android Tablets and smartphones.") (FOSS Patents coverage)

  8. September 28, 2011: Microsoft and Samsung Broaden Smartphone Partnership ("Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft will receive royalties for Samsung's mobile phones and tablets running the Android mobile platform.") (FOSS Patents coverage)

  9. October 23, 2011: Microsoft and Compal Electronics Sign Patent Agreement Covering Android and Chrome Based Devices

  10. January 12, 2012: Microsoft and LG Sign Patent Agreement Covering Android and Chrome OS Based Devices (FOSS Patents coverage)

  11. April 25, 2012: Microsoft and Pegatron Corp. Sign Patent Agreement Covering Android- and Chrome-Based Devices

  12. April 30, 2012: Barnes & Noble and Microsoft Form Strategic Partnership to Advance World-Class Digital Reading Experiences for Consumers" ("Barnes & Noble and Microsoft have settled their patent litigation, and moving forward, Barnes & Noble and Newco will have a royalty-bearing license under Microsoft's patents for its NOOK eReader and Tablet products.") (FOSS Patents coverage)

  13. July 9, 2012: Microsoft and Aluratek Inc. Sign Patent Agreement Covering Android and Chrome Based Devices

  14. July 9, 2012: Microsoft and Coby Electronics Sign Patent Agreement Covering Android and Chrome Based Devices ("Although the contents of the agreement have not been disclosed, the parties indicate that Microsoft will receive royalties from Coby under the agreement.")

  15. November 7, 2012: Microsoft Signs Licensing Agreements for exFAT With Sharp, Sigma, NextoDi, Black Magic and Atomos Global ("The agreements cover Sharp Android tablets, Sigma and NextoDi high-end cameras and accessories, and Black Magic and Atomos Global broadcast-quality video-recording devices.")

  16. November 11, 2012: HTC and Apple Settle Patent Dispute (FOSS Patents coverage)

  17. December 11, 2012: Microsoft and EINS Sign Android Patent Agreement ("EINS manufactures Android tablets under the Cat brand in Germany.") (FOSS Patents coverage)

  18. December 11, 2012: Microsoft and Hoeft & Wessel AG Sign Patent Agreement ("Agreement will cover Hoeft & Wessel devices running the Android platform.") (FOSS Patents coverage)
  19. February 21, 2013: Microsoft and Nikon Sign Android Patent Agreement ("Agreement covers certain Nikon cameras running the Android platform.") (FOSS Patents coverage)

  20. April 16 (U.S.)/17 (Asia/Europe), 2013: Microsoft and Foxconn Parent Hon Hai Sign Patent Agreement For Android and Chrome Devices ("Agreement provides broad coverage under Microsoft's patent portfolio to manufacturer of more than 40 percent of the world's consumer electronics.") (FOSS Patents coverage)

  21. April 23 (U.S.)/24 (Asia/Europe), 2013: With ZTE, Most Major Android Makers Choose Licensing ("Under the agreement, Microsoft grants ZTE a license to Microsoft’s worldwide patent portfolio for ZTE phones, tablets, computers and other devices running Android and Chrome OS") (FOSS Patents coverage)

  22. October 24, 2013: LG agrees to pay Vertical Computer Systems for another Android patent license (FOSS Patents coverage)

  23. January 21, 2014: Huawei settles with Rockstar Consortium, will pay for Android's infringement of ex-Nortel patents (FOSS Patents coverage)

  24. January 27, 2014: Ericsson and Samsung reach agreement on licensing terms (FOSS Patents coverage)

  25. February 7, 2014: Nokia and HTC signed a patent and technology collaboration agreement (FOSS Patents coverage)

  26. February 13, 2014: Microsoft and Voxx Electronics sign patent agreement for Android devices

  27. February 20, 2014: Microsoft and Hop-on sign patent agreement for Android and Chrome devices ("[T]he parties indicate that Microsoft will receive royalties from Hop-on under the agreement")

  28. March 21, 2014: Samsung settles with Vertical Computer Systems

  29. March 26, 2014: Microsoft and Dell sign patent licensing agreement ("Under the terms of the agreement, they agreed on royalties for Dell’s products running the Android or Chrome platforms and on consideration to Dell for a license from Microsoft for Xbox gaming consoles.")

This list is inevitably non-exhaustive: most deals are never announced. Also, one could make an argument that Intellectual Ventures' license agreements with the likes of Samsung and HTC should be added to the list. IV is claiming in its dispute with Motorola Mobility (where a mistrial lately occurred in Delaware, but that's not the end of the story) that Android infringes some of its countless patents. It's rather conservative not to list those IV deals here, but the moment IV proves any infringement of an Android patent in court or announces a license deal that involves Android or settles litigation that targets Android, I'll add those deals to the list.

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Licensing Executives Society wants to 'make the world better through [patent] licensing'

In less than two months, many of the thought leaders in intellectual property, including Federal Circuit Chief Judge Randall Rader and WIPO Director General Francis Gurry, will meet in Moscow at the 2014 Licensing Executives Society (LES) International Conference. Hopefully no politician will pressure any of those high-profile attendees to cancel their attendance because of the Ukraine/Crimea issue, which simply has nothing to do with intellectual property.

The choice of venue is interesting. There is growing interest in intellectual property protection in Russia, which is potentially a huge market.

The LES is a global organization that brings together lawyers and corporate executives working on technology transfer. The President of LES Russia, Gorodissky & Partners' Sergey Dorofeev, is a Russian patent and trademark attorney with a particular focus on technology transfer, i.e., licensing in order to share innovation without having to resort to litigation.

As I write this post, LES USA & Canada is holding its first-ever mid-year meeting in New York City. The LES announced, on short notice, a keynote address by Judge James F. Holderman, United States District Court Northern District of Illinois, on "F/RAND Licensing: A Federal Judge's Perspective". I blogged about Judge Holderman's WiFi SEP rate-setting decision in October.

I don't travel much, so I won't be at this week's New York meeting nor the Moscow conference in May, but since this blog is read by so many actual and potential members of the LES, I did want to draw attention to these events and the important work done by this organization.

By the way, several members of the leadership of the German chapter of the LES have been mentioned on this blog in recent years. While everyone prefers licensing over litigation (except for a few trolls whose business model is to bring nuisance lawsuits and settle for a "license fee" below the cost of a proper defense), the latter sometimes can't be avoided.

The President of LES Germany, Bardehle Pagenberg's Peter Hess, is a patent attorney I think particularly highly of. I mentioned his work on a few occasions in connection with Microsoft's German lawsuits against Motorola Mobility, but that's just a small part of the work Mr. Hess does. At an appellate hearing in Munich a news agency reporter whispered to me: "This attorney is damn good! He explains things in a way even a layperson can understand." And Microsoft indeed fended off Motorola's related appeal last year. The Bardehle firm has offices in Munich (headquarters), Dusseldorf, Barcelona, Paris, and Milan. It has won multiple awards over the years relating to patent prosecution as well as litigation.

The names of other key players at LES Germany have also been mentioned on this blog before. Reimann Osterrieth Koehler Haft's Klaus Haft, a physicist and attorney at law, has represented Nokia in various key cases (such as against Apple a few years ago) and recently obtained and enforced an injunction over a standard-essential patent against ZTE. Boehmert & Boehmert's Christian Appelt is a patent attorney who represented Microsoft against Motorola Mobility (offensively and defensively) in Mannheim, as did Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer's Professor Peter Chrocziel, a patent litigator and antitrust expert.

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Not only in America: the fight for access to sealed Apple-Samsung court documents

This week I'm spending my time mostly on software development, but today is an exception and I wanted to share some information of the kind I usually don't blog about. In connection with the Apple v. Samsung dispute in the U.S., Reuters, MLex and others (such as the First Amendment Coalition, whose members include the Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times, and Wired) filed formal petitions to grant the general public access to certain sealed court documents (relating to damages estimates, for example). At the time I thanked them for this effort on Twitter.

Their fight for the important cause of transparency inspired and encouraged me not to back down when I encountered some resistance to various requests for access to the case files of nullity (patent invalidation) actions pending before the Federal Patent Court of Germany. There is no such thing as PACER in my country. The only way to find out about the details of patent infringement cases is to attend the hearings and the announcements of the decisions in person (which I do all the time, though I don't blog about it if I do so for clients who wish to receive exclusive, private reports). Nullity (invalidation) cases are separate proceedings (this is called "bifurcation", and I criticized it in my previous post), and at least there is some degree of transparency there -- no PACER-like electronic access, but at least any member of the general public can file a petition and, if the petition succeeds, take a look at the original case file in what they call the "public search room" (that's the official English translation) of the German Patent and Trademark Office (which, like the Federal Patent Court, is based in Munich).

Once a petition is filed, the parties to a nullity action are asked to designate documents as confidential. If the petitioner narrows the request accordingly, which is what I usually do, then there is no dispute and all other documents are made available in the "public search room". Otherwise the court has to decide whether to grant the sealing requests.

In the cases in which I petitioned, I didn't run into any disagreement with Apple, Microsoft, and Motorola Mobility. And for the most part I had no problem with Samsung either, but in a couple of cases its lead patent attorney in the Apple cases, Zimmermann & Partner's Dr. Joel Naegerl ("Nägerl" in German), was too protective of his client's interests in confidentiality for my taste. Dr. Naegerl has done a great job for Samsung on the defensive side and deserves most of the credit for getting Apple's slide-to-unlock patent invalidated about a year ago (a member of the same patent family will go to trial in California on Monday, but fortunately for Apple, neither Dr. Naegerl nor any of the judges of the Federal Patent Court will be on the San Jose jury). I just couldn't accept some of his sealing requests.

Among other things Dr. Naegerl opposed my access to a preliminary ruling on Apple's photo gallery patent (which was also invalidated). And he claimed that any document in a nullity case file that relates to a parallel infringement case is confidential just because the courts hearing the infringement cases don't grant the general public access to documents. Some of the documents filed in infringement cases undoubtedly contain confidential business information, but some don't. I just wanted to ensure that someone who puts in a sealing request (regardless of whether we're talking about Samsung or anyone else) at least has to state a reason that is specific to the content of a document.

My concern was that if I accepted this, I would over time be denied access to ever more documents in the nullity case files. At the same time I didn't want to contribute to the workload of the Federal Patent Court. So I picked only a few key issues, hoping that the court would set the record straight on the sealing standard. And it did. In one of those cases, the court sent out an informal notice clarifying the standard, but since I was able to obtain a preliminary ruling, I no longer needed a formal ruling on my petition. In two other cases, a formal decision was necessary. I recently obtained a copy of the preliminary ruling on the photo gallery patent, and in a parallel matter the court allowed me, over Samsung's objections, to read Apple's sur-reply (from the infringement proceedings) in the infringement case over Samsung's smiley input method patent. Here's the front page of the related decision (this post continues below the document):

Today I went to the "public search room" and read the sur-reply. The document revealed nothing confidential (such as licensing terms, licensing negotiations, inner workings of products etc.). I depend on access to documents for my patent litigation-related work, and a reasonable degree of transparency is also in the public interest. Just like I had a "free-rider" benefit from the effort that others made in California, I hope that others will benefit from my work here in Germany, a hotbed for patent litigation between global players.

Next week's California trial will be public proceeding. I won't be able to attend it, but I will follow it to the extent that I can over the Internet, particularly Twitter. Maybe I'll do a pretrial post on Monday, but it's also possible that I'll focus on the Supreme Court hearing in CLS Bank v. Alice on Monday (some stakeholders try to turn this into a general debate over whether computer-implemented inventions should be patent-eligible, an issue I'm very interested in for a variety of reasons, including that I'm soon going to file my first patent application) and blog about Apple v. Samsung only after the first couple of days (after both parties' opening arguments etc.).

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Monday, March 17, 2014

New draft rules for future European patent court slightly more balanced with respect to sales bans

A week ago, I expressed, in a post on infringement lawsuits filed that day by a non-practicing entity over former Ericsson wireless patents, doubts about the European Commission's Internal Market officials' commitment to a balanced patent litigation system. I have meanwhile looked at the 16th revised draft Rules of Procedure for Europe's future Unified Patent Court. Compared to the previous version, that draft is a step in the right direction with respect to injunctive relief, though at the current pace it would take Europe about 20 years to catch up with the U.S. eBay v. MercExchange standard (which is almost eight years old).

At least European policy makers don't entirely ignore a growing industry coalition's call for a balanced framework lest Europe become the patent trolls' paradise.

If further adjustments follow later this year, however, then there is still hope for a reasonably good outcome. In my opinion, something must be done about bifurcation: there must not be a window of opportunity to enforce injunctive (or even monetary) relief over patents before a validity decision has been made. Too many patents are simply invalid as granted. In all of the patent disputes I watch, not a single one of the challenged patents has been affirmed in its granted form.

At this point I'll just compare the current state of the European draft rules with the eBay factor.

Rule 211.3, which you can find on page 87 of the PDF document, relates to preliminary injunctions and now has the following wording:

In taking its decision, the Court shall in the exercise of its discretion weigh up the interests of the parties and, in particular, take into account the potential harm for either of the parties resulting from the granting or the refusal of the injunction.

(emphasis added)

The bold-face addition is similar to the balance-of-hardships eBay factor. And the words "in particular" mean that judges can give consideration to further factors, but it would be much better to spell those others factors out.

The other eBay factors -- irreparable harm, inadequacy of monetary compensation, public interest -- are not mentioned. Judges could, but won't necessarily, read them into the balance-of-hardships part. Without the rules of procedure being modified further, I doubt that the Unified Patent Court would focus on irreparable harm as opposed to just any harm. And if the focus should be on irreparable harm, then the inadequacy of monetary relief must also be a factor -- in my opinion, even an absolutely indispensable requirement. Of course, nothing would stop European judges from cosnidering the availability of other remedies in connection with the balance of hardships. But there should be a clear signal that monetary compensation is very often (though obviously not always) a perfectly adequate alternative to injunctive relief.

I'm also concerned that the public interest is not mentioned. I have repeatedly criticized attempts by litigants, intervenors and self-serving amici curiae in the U.S. to interpret the public interest exceedingly broadly. Nevertheless I believe that the public interest should be mentioned. In the current form, the European draft rules suggest that the granting or refusal of injunctive relief should be considered only againt the background of a dispute between two private parties. While a party could always make a public-interest argument in the balance-of-hardships context, the current rules don't ensure that such arguments, which can be very important and sometimes tip the scales, will be afforded significant weight.

If nothing else was done, the addition of a balance-of-hardships consideration might be "too little, too late". Much more of an effort is needed. I'm neither totally disappointed nor happy. I'm cautiously optimistic and will continue to follow the process.

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Court document reveals discriminatory royalty demands by Ericsson for its wireless patents

Ericsson is increasingly becoming a patent troll (and privateer feeder) in the sense that it places the emphasis on patent monetization and apparently expects more growth in that business area than in its product business. The more I learn about its related activities, the less I like its practices.

What I do like, however, is that its conduct brings to light certain issues that are relevant and, unfortunately, not limited to Ericsson. Transparency, whether intended (when Ericsson explained why it collects royalties from device makers rather than chipset manufactures, i.e in order to charge more) or unintended (when bad behavior comes to light as a result of the two ongoing antitrust investigations in India or court proceedings), is always appreciated.

If the dispute between Ericsson and Samsung had not been settled before any ruling came down, we would likely have learned a lot. Both companies accused each of other of suddenly asking for far higher royalties than in the past. The details of this will remain sealed forever. But I have now obtained what I consider a smoking gun that lends credence to Samsung's allegations concerning Ericsson: a November 7, 2013 order by the High Court of Delhi at New Delhi, India, in a case in which a company named Saral Communications was fighting customs seizures of shipments that had apparently been requested by Ericsson on the basis of it wireless standard-essential patents (SEPs).

The order (published further below) states that in an email dated October 18, 2013, Ericsson offered a wireless SEP portfolio license to Saral on certain terms, but subsequently its counsel "submitted that this communication indicating the aforesaid rates of royalty had been issued by a mistake" and communicated the royalty rates known from the investigation by the Competition Commission of India of Micromax's complaint against Ericsson. Saral disputes that the email was a mistake, and I didn't just fall of a turnip truck either. Ericsson simply realized that it was out of compliance with its FRAND licensing commitment -- the "ND" in FRAND means "non-discriminatory", and demanding roughly twice the royalty rates from one company (Micromax) than from another (Saral) without the slightest indication of any justification would be grossly discriminatory misconduct. Here's a comparison of the two sets of terms:

Standard(s)Original OfferNew Demand
GSM0.75%1.25%
GPRS + GSM0.80%1.75%
EDGE + GPRS + GSM0.90%2.00%
3G1.20%2.00%

Here's the court order:

13-11-07 Delhi High Court Saral Communications by Florian Mueller

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Friday, March 14, 2014

Rockstar fine-tuning its Android lawsuits, now asserting four more patents against Google

There hasn't been much progress so far with the Rockstar Consortium's Halloween lawsuits against Google and seven Android device makers (one of whom, Huawei, has already settled) because the parties are still debating the proper venue. But the venue fight does involve some substantive issues, and as a side effect of the related motion practice it became known that Nortel employees told Google back in 2010 that it infringed certain patents that Rockstar is asserting now.

Just for a brief update, Rockstar has made some adjustments to its complaints in order to increase its chances of defeating Google's (and the Android OEMs') push for moving the cases out of the Eastern District of Texas:

  • Late last year Rockstar already added Google as a co-defendant to its Samsung lawsuit. That was the first amended complaint in Rockstar v. Samsung. Rockstar is now seeking permission to file a second amended complaint. In the first one, it asserted only three of the seven patents-in-suit against Google. The objective of the proposed second amended complaint (i.e., the third version in total) is to additionally asserted the four other patents against Google as well. Since those four patents were previously already asserted against Samsung and were addressed by Google in its declaratory judgment action in the Northern District of California, Rockstar argues there's no reasonable basis for Google to oppose this addition. But there is a disagreement.

  • Samsung was first to bring a motion to dismiss Rockstar's lawsuit(s) for lack of standing at the time of filing and, with respect to one of the patents-in-suit, on the grounds of invalidity. The other Android OEMs brought similar, though not in all cases identical, motions to dismiss shortly thereafter. ZTE was last to do so (mentioned in this post) and additionally argued that Rockstar lacked a basis to allege willful infringement of the '551 patent. Rockstar amended its complaint against ZTE accordingly, rendering the '551 willfulness issue moot.

I guess Rockstar's procedural steps will be sufficient to dissuade Judge Gilstrap in Texas from granting any motion to transfer, but won't dissuade Google and its OEMs from filing a somewhat likely mandamus petition with the Federal Circuit. Google could lose in Texas or win in California; so could Rockstar. But especially with a view to pretrial decisions (summary judgment etc.), the Northern District of California would clearly be a better venue for the defendants in these cases.

Finally, on a somewhat related note I'd like to mention something here on which I already commented on Twitter. Bloomberg reported on Google's successful efforts to find out who is behind a patent troll named Suffolk Technologies LLC that is suing it over a former BT patent, and it turned out that "Suffolk is owned by Corporate Research Partners, which is owned by IPValue, formed in 2001 by a joint venture of Goldman Sachs, General Atlantic Partners and Boston Consulting Group". A spokeswoman for Goldman Sachs "said the company has a minority, non-controlling stake in iFormation Group, the parent of IPValue", reports Bloomberg. This doesn't reflect favorably on Goldman Sachs at all, and Google did the world a service by naming and shaming Goldman Sachs for its involvement with patent trolling. But the Bloomberg article misses an important point: while Google supports disclosures of the real party in interest in connection with litigation, it has said that it's not really interested in ensuring transparency in patent ownership before litigation is brought. And that's where transparency should begin. So, while I congratulate Google on its revelations regarding Goldman Sachs, I would encourage it to promote transparency in patent ownership at all levels and all stages, not just selectively.

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Thursday, March 13, 2014

ZTE recently failed to get an injunction over a standard-essential patent stayed: win for Vringo

I have only this week become aware of a development that is relevant to a subject often discussed on this blog: the availability and enforcement of injunctions over FRAND-pledged standard-essential patents (SEPs) in Germany. About a year ago, the Dusseldorf Regional Court referred various related questions to the Court of Justice of the EU in a Huawei v. ZTE case and stayed its proceedings despite identifying an infringement. As a result, those seeking to enforce SEPs in Germany were concerned that other cases of that kind would also be stayed, while those having to defend themselves frequently invoked the pending CJEU case. It now turns out that, subject to the specifics of a case, injunctive relief over SEPs is still available if you prevail on liability before the Mannheim Regional Court (at least its Second Civil Chamber, which Judge Dr. Kircher presides over) and either face no Orange-Book-Standard defense or manage to overcome it.

Vringo, a non-practicing entity that has already won some interesting court cases, won a German SEP case against ZTE in December 2013 and was granted an injunction. An English translation of the ruling was published by Vringo on its website. Injunctive relief was granted. ZTE appealed and sought an emergency stay from the Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court, which was denied in late February according to a Vringo press release. Therefore, ZTE had to and presumably still has to comply with the injunction, which affects its standards-compliant base stations. (ZTE could make an Orange-Book-Standard licensing offer, or could amend a previously-made one, and then bring a new motion for a stay.)

In November, another panel of the Mannheim court -- the Seventh Civil Chamber, which Judge Voss ("VoĂŸ" in German) presides over -- had stayed a Motorola v. Apple FRAND rate-setting case and referred questions so the European Commission. But the circumstances in that case are different. It's not an infringement/injunction matter, and there is an ongoing European Commission investigation of Motorola Mobility's use of SEPs against Apple (and one concerning its SEP assertions against Microsoft) in Europe. There is no ongoing investigation of Vringo's assertions, however.

The Mannheim injunction and the Karlsruhe denial of a motion for stay are notable successes for Vringo's lead counsel in the German litigations against ZTE, Klaus Haft of Reimann Osterrieth Koehler Haft. While I'm personally against injunctions over SEPs, I do recognize that this outcome is no small achievement, under the circumstances, for Vringo and its counsel. Mr. Haft has litigated FRAND matters on multiple occasions. For one example, he represented Nokia in its SEP cases against ViewSonic, and ViewSonic settled the SEP part of its dispute with Nokia last year by taking a royalty-bearing license (the non-SEP part is still ongoing). I have also seen Mr. Haft defend clients vigorously against SEP assertions. His firm also represented Deutsche Telekom against patent licensing firm IPCom (a dispute that was settled in June 2013).

Vringo's headway against ZTE will probably encourage other litigants to continue to seek SEP-based injunctions in Germany, particularly in Mannheim. Any case that would be filed now would realistically be adjudged only after the CJEU has handed down an opinion in Huawei v. ZTE, a decision that may or may not provide clarity concerning SEP-based injunctions in the European Union.

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Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Apple files cross-appeal in first Samsung case: presumably keeps trying to obtain an injunction

Last week, Samsung appealed the final judgment in its first California litigation with Apple on the same day on which it was handed down, and about a month after Judge Koh had denied both parties' motions for judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) (at which point the clock for an appeal arguably began to tick for Samsung). It was very likely that Apple would appeal the unfavorable parts of the judgment, particularly last week's (second) denial of a permanent injunction. And late on Tuesday, Apple indeed filed a notice of its cross-appeal.

Apple's appeal relates to the final judgment as well as "all interlocutory decisions and orders subsidiary thereto or subsumed therein, including but not limited to, the August 24, 2012 Judgment (Dkt. No. 1933), the March 1, 2013 Order re: Damages (Dkt. No. 2271), and the November 21, 2013 Judgment (Dkt. No. 2823), as well as the March 6, 2014 Order Denying Apple's Renewed Motion for Permanent Injunction (Dkt. No. 3015), to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit".

A notice of appeal always has the broadest scope, but in a complex case like this, appellants typically later focus on a limited number of key issues. I think it's reasonably likely that Apple will try again to obtain an injunction (the last item on the list I just quoted). It will have to raise issues relating to Judge Koh's consideration of the "Hauser conjoint survey", a piece of evidence that the Federal Circuit said in the previous appeal the district court must consider. I had understood the Federal Circuit opinion to suggest between the lines (also in light of what the circuit judges said at the hearing) that Hauser should carry the day for Apple, but the decision didn't say so explicitly, much less direct entry of an injunction. In my commentary on Samsung's opposition to the renewed motion for an injunction, I had stated the following:

"Even though Samsung's lawyers present some of their arguments in a pretty compelling fashion (for example, the fact that the "Hauser" survey, the key piece of evidence here that shows consumers' willingness to pay premium prices for certain patented features, doesn't compare particular features to the best non-infringing alternative), entry of a permanent injunction is still the most likely outcome here. The Federal Circuit didn't want to give a direct instruction to Judge Koh that she enter an injunction on remand. Instead, it basically said that Judge Koh stopped the analysis too early, and deferred to the court of equity. But Judge Koh will look at the forest, not only the trees Samsung addresses. And the overall picture is that the Federal Circuit most likely would have rejected Apple's appeal if it had felt that, all things considered, Apple should once again be denied a permanent injunction."

I acknowledge that Samsung and its lawyers were right on this one. What looked like a long shot worked out for them. But I also wouldn't be surprised if Apple gave it another try, hoping that the appeals court will then provide clarification that results in an injunction.

Apple's reference to the March 1 damages order means that it reserves the right to defend, on appeal, the original (August 2012) jury verdict. After all, juries get a lot of deference, and maybe Apple hopes that the appeals court will reject the reverse engineering of the verdict by Samsung's lawyers. But where it is very clear how a jury arrived at its numbers, reverse engineering is acceptable. With respect to one product, the Galaxy Prevail, the jury verdict is absolutely indefensible (provided that reverse engineering is performed) because the jury awarded a wrong category of damages.

So the Apple v. Samsung cross-appeal has started, and I'll follow it very closely.

With respect to another high-profile cross-appeal involving Apple, I'm wondering when the Federal Circuit will finally hand down its opinion. The appellate hearing in the "Posner" Apple v. Motorola litigation was held six months and one day ago, on September 11. That's an incredibly long time between a hearing and an appellate decision. Admittedly, it's a huge case with offensive claims brought by both parties, and the Federal Circuit has never been busier. Still, this is now taking unusually long. In late January I already thought that the ruling was likely to issue any moment.

At the hearing it appeared that Apple was on the winning track. A remand of Apple's offensive case, involving among other things the "Steve Jobs patent", looked like a given. Before that trial finally happens, Motorola's handset business will belong to Lenovo. A remand of Motorola's standard-essential patent claims is also a possibility, but Chief Judge Rader called Motorola's SEP damages claim "crazy" (twice, in fact). I would like to see the Federal Circuit affirm Judge Posner's denial of injunctive relief over SEPs, but it's not certain that it will reach that issue. Judge Posner dismissed the Apple-Motorola case before him, instead of holding a trial that had already been scheduled, because he concluded that the parties weren't entitled to any remedy whatsoever. Technically, if the Federal Circuit held that Motorola was entitled to some damages (though nowhere near the amount it sought), that could be enough to remand for further proceedings, but both parties definitely wanted -- and many other industry players also want -- clarity on the question of SEP-based injunctions. That issue might very well be appealed to the Supreme Court, and in my opinion it would be "certworthy".

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Tuesday, March 11, 2014

At upcoming trial, Apple wants Samsung to pay $40 per device for only five software patents

I have sometimes, maybe even quite often, but not always agreed with Apple. And I have disagreed with Apple on more occasions than parts of the Android and open source communities have acknowledged. Now that I have obtained the public transcript (which you can find at the end of this post) of a January 23 hearing held by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on Apple and Samsung's motions to toss each other's damages theories, I face the first situation in which I don't merely disagree with Apple but am rather wondering whether it has lost its mind.

Apple's damages theory for the trial that will begin in less than three weeks (on March 31) is an objective insanity, and I say so even though Judge Koh allowed Apple to present it to the jury.

A damages expert will argue on Apple's behalf that, if the parties had acted reasonably and rationally in a hypothetical negotiation, Samsung would have agreed to pay $40 -- forty dollars! -- per phone or tablet sold as a total royalty for the five patents-in-suit, which relate to (but don't even fully monopolize) the phone number tapping feature, unified search, data synchronization, slide-to-unlock, and autocomplete. The theory is that Samsung would simply have raised its prices accordingly. (You can find the final list of Apple's patents-in-suit here; that post also lists Samsung's patents-in-suit, but three more patent claims have since been dropped).

$40 per unit. For five software patents. Give me a break. Reality distortion would be a total understatement for this.

On average, that is $8 per patent per unit. About two years ago, after someone was awarded that per-patent-per-unit figure against Research In Motion (now BlackBerry), I said that such damages/royalty figures would make smartphone unaffordable and performed a simple calculation: "[E]ven if I take only half of the Google/RPX estimate (i.e., 125,000 [patents used in a modern-day smartphone]), the potential licensing cost per smartphone would amount to $1,000,000 -- yes, one million dollars per device -- if the average licensing cost per patent corresponded to this [rate]", which I called "absolutely unsustainable". And I presented a much more conservative calculation: "Even if I wanted to give [the plaintiff in that case] the benefit of the doubt that this patent is 100 times (!) as valuable as the average patent, and if I assumed that the Google/RPX estimate is 10 times the accurate number of patents, the per-device license fee would still be $2,000."

This damages theory is also irreconcilable with Apple's own numbers that have previously come to light in the same district:

  • At a meeting between Apple and Samsung in 2010 (the year before this litigation started), Apple proposed a royalty of $30 per unit for an entire portfolio, not just a handful of patents (to be precise, the proposal also involved a rate of $40 per unit for tablet computers, but only for the first two years).

  • In the first California litigation, Apple's reasonable royalty damages claim for its software patents was only a fraction of what it wants now. The per-unit royalty claims in the summer 2012 trial were $3.10 for the "pinch-to-zoom API" '915 patent (which the USPTO now considers invalid) and $2.02 each for the "overscroll bounce" (or "rubber-banding") '318 patent and the "tap-to-zoom-and-navigate" '163 patent. That was a total of §7.14 for three software patents. The total damages amount in the first case ($929 million after two trials, but prior to the appeal, which Samsung filed last week) was $929 million, but the bulk of that was related to design patents and trade dress, i.e., intellectual property rights for which U.S. statutory law explicitly allows damages theories (disgorgement of infringer's profits) that are legally unavailable for utility (i.e., technical) patents.

I have repeatedly criticized, and won't ever support, Samsung's 2.4%-of-total-device-sales royalty demand for its portfolio of wireless standard-essential patents (SEPs). Apple has argued over and over, and rightly in my opinion, that the number is not a FRAND royalty rate. Apple and I have also taken that position on Motorola Mobility's 2.25% demand for a portfolio of patents of the same kind. But 2.25% or 2.4% of the price of a $500 iPhone would be $12 per unit -- less than a third of what Apple wants for five software patents, and Samsung and Motorola hold a far greater number of wireless SEPs.

I still believe that SEP and non-SEP issues must not be mixed up in connection with injunctive relief. But when it comes to the FR part of FRAND ("fair and reasonable"), the question of double standards is legitimate (of course, provided that one takes into consideration any relevant differences between the patents or portfolios compared, but few people would probably think that patents relating to things like autocomplete are inherently more valuable than wireless SEPs).

If patents are not encumbered by a FRAND licensing pledge, a patentee can ask for anything, but here we have a situation where Apple's damages expert argues that Samsung would actually have paid the amount at the end of a hypothetical, perfectly rational negotiation. And that theory undermines Apple's FRAND arguments big time, at least psychologically, because Samsung and Motorola would also argue that Apple would have paid them $12 per phone at the end of a reasonably-led negotiation. Antitrust authorities have probably been aware of Apple's non-SEP royalty theories for a while. I still hope regulators will give meaning to FRAND, but it's only human if some decision-makers note a major discrepancy between Apple's positions on reasonable royalties and if this makes them less inclined to impose drastic sanctions on Apple's rivals.

Apple's royalty-type damages claim for five software patents is also far out of the ballpark of anything that has ever been claimed or rumored to be paid in this industry for entire portfolios. After Apple and Nokia settled in 2011, the highest per-unit royalty estimate I heard about (and this was just an analyst's claim, not official information) was in the $10 range -- for Nokia's huge portfolio of SEPs and non-SEPs, not for a handful of patents. Guesstimates of what various Android device makers pay to Microsoft -- again, for a portfolio license, not a five-patent license -- that have appeared in the media did not exceed $15-20 per unit, at least the ones I'm aware of. (And Microsoft has a stronger software patent portfolio than Apple.)

I can understand that Apple, almost three years after having filed its first lawsuit against Samsung, is disappointed with the fact that it has no enforceable remedies in place in the United States. But seeking out-of-this-world damages based on bizarre theories of what a hypothetical negotiation would result in is not the answer.

Before I show you the full Daubert (admissibility of expert reports) hearing transcript, let me publish the passages that refer to the $40 claim. You'll find some intersting facts in them, such as that Apple on the one hand argues that its theory is supported by real-world license deals, but it didn't want the jury to see those deals, which Samsung's lawyers attribute to the fact that no jury would ever award that number if it became aware of what the going royalty rates in this industry are:

MR. WATSON: GOOD AFTERNOON, YOUR HONOR.

SCOTT WATSON TO ADDRESS THE CHEVALIER MOTION.

ACTUALLY, YOUR HONOR, THE INTERESTING THING HERE IS THAT THE CONSIDERATION OF THE LICENSING DATA IN THIS CASE ACTUALLY PUSHES DR. CHEVALIER'S RATE UP, NOT DOWN.

AND IF YOU LOOK AT FOOTNOTE 1 IN APPLE'S BRIEF, THIS HAS GOT TO BE A FIRST IN THE HISTORY OF DAUBERT. APPLE SAYS, "WE'D LIKE TO EXCLUDE THIS EVIDENCE. WE DON'T TAKE ISSUE WITH THE RESULTS OF HER ANALYSIS." THEY'RE NOT ASKING TO EXCLUDE THE REASONABLE ROYALTY NUMBERS THAT DR. CHEVALIER ENDED UP WITH, THEY JUST WANT TO EXCLUDE THE ACTUAL LICENSING DATA IN THE CASE.

AND, YOUR HONOR, THE REASON FOR THAT IS BECAUSE IT IS OUT OF ALL BOUNDS FROM THE DAMAGES NUMBERS THAT APPLE WOULD LIKE TO PUT UP.

EACH -- EACH OF THESE DIFFERENT TYPES OF LICENSING EVIDENCE DIRECTLY IMPEACH THE NUMBER APPLE WANTS TO PUT UP.

IT WANTS TO PUT UP $40 A UNIT -- [...]

MR. WATSON: WELL, YOUR HONOR, IF I MAY, SHE IS A PROFESSOR WHO TEACHES IN THE TECHNOLOGY SPACE AT THE YALE BUSINESS SCHOOL. SHE IS THE PERSON WHO CHAIRED YALE'S COMMITTEE ON COOPERATIVE RESEARCH, WHICH IS THE LICENSING ARM OF YALE. SO SHE WAS THE CHAIR FOR LICENSING ALL OF YALE'S INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY FOR THREE YEARS.

THIS IS A WOMAN WHO HAS READ LICENSE AGREEMENTS, WHO IS FAMILIAR WITH THE TECHNOLOGY.

AND, YOUR HONOR, THEY HAVEN'T PUT A SINGLE LICENSE IN FRONT OF YOU IN THEIR PAPERS AND SAID, "LOOK AT THIS LICENSE, THIS ISN'T COMPARABLE. LOOK AT THIS TYPE OF TECHNOLOGY, IT'S NOT COMPARABLE." IF YOU LOOK AT THE BODY OF HER REPORT AT PARAGRAPH 327, SHE'S IDENTIFYING THE TYPES OF PATENTS WE HAVE IN THIS CASE.

THESE ARE SMALL FEATURES ON A VERY COMPLEX PRODUCT.

AND IF YOU LOOK AT THE DISCUSSION IN PARAGRAPH 327 OF HER REPORT, SHE HAS ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES.

NOW, YOUR HONOR SAID, WELL, SHE'S EXCLUDED SOME OF THE LARGER LICENSES. THOSE ARE PORTFOLIO CROSS-LICENSES. APPLE DOESN'T DISPUTE THAT THOSE SHOULD BE EXCLUDED.

DR. VELLTURO JUST EXCLUDES EVERY LICENSE FROM HIS ANALYSIS BECAUSE TO GET TO $40 A UNIT, WHICH IS WHAT THEY WANT, THE JURY CANNOT SEE A LICENSING AGREEMENT IN THIS CASE. THERE'S NO WAY. IT'S TOTALLY DISPARATE TO ACTUAL MARKET INFORMATION. [...]

MR. WATSON: WELL, YOUR HONOR, I MEAN, THEY'RE -- SHE OBVIOUSLY HAS A LOT OF DATA POINTS THAT ARE GOING INTO A VERY SOPHISTICATED, I SUBMIT, GEORGIA PACIFIC ANALYSIS AND IT'S IN THE RECORD AND THE COURT CAN LOOK AT IT.

BUT ALL I'M SAYING IS THIS IS A CASE -- IF YOU LOOK AT RESQNET AND YOU LOOK AT THE OTHER FEDERAL CIRCUIT CASES, WHAT ARE THEY CONCERNED ABOUT? THEY'RE CONCERNED ABOUT CHERRY PICKING LICENSES IN YOUR FAVOR. YOU'RE GOING TO LOOK AT THE BENQ LICENSE AND NOT AT THE OTHER 29 BECAUSE IT'S SIX TIMES BIGGER AND YOU'RE TRYING TO SKEW THE NUMBERS.

THAT'S NOT WHAT'S GOING ON HERE. DR. CHEVALIER IS MOVING HER NUMBER UP BECAUSE OF THE LICENSING DATA. THE ONLY REASON APPLE IS BRINGING THIS MOTION IS BECAUSE THE LICENSING DATA IS COMPLETELY INCONSISTENT WITH THE IDEA THAT ANYONE WOULD PAY $40 FOR FIVE SMARTPHONE PATENTS PER UNIT.

MR. QUINN: IF WE COULD LOOK AT THAT EDGEWORTH BOX SLIDE.

THIS IS THE REASONABLE NEGOTIATION ANALYSIS THAT DR. VELLTURO DOES. HE CONCLUDED THAT SAMSUNG'S WILLINGNESS TO PAY IS ON THE RIGHT-HAND SIDE. APPLE'S WILLINGNESS TO ACCEPT FOR ALL OF THESE PATENTS, WHICH ADDS UP TO $40, $40 PER UNIT IS THE LOST PROFITS NUMBER WHICH HE TIES BACK TO HAUSER, AND HE CONCLUDED THAT THE RESULT OF A REASONABLE NEGOTIATION WOULD BE THAT SAMSUNG WOULD SIMPLY RAISE PRICES AND PAY EVERYTHING THAT APPLE IS WILLING TO ACCEPT.

Finally, here's the full hearing transcript:

14-01-23 Cv630 Daubert Hearing Transcript by Florian Mueller

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Monday, March 10, 2014

Unwired Planet sues Samsung, Google, Huawei, HTC over six former Ericsson wireless patents

Unwired Planet, a patent licensing firm that has acquired more than 2,600 patent assets, today announced the filing of parallel patent infringement lawsuits in London and Dusseldorf involving six former Ericsson wireless patents. Samsung, Google, and Huawei have to defend themselves in the UK and in Germany, and HTC only in Germany.

In January, Samsung signed a new patent license agreement with Ericsson, but it appears that patents previously divested by Ericsson were not included because Ericsson presumably could, at that point, not have done anything to prevent Unwired Planet from asserting them against a third party. Transactions such as Ericsson's sale of patents to Unwired Planet, which in turn asserts them against other companies, are sometimes referred to as "privateering". Such agreements frequently come with deal terms under which the NPE and the former patent holders share the royalty income. Buy-back provisions are also common.

Today's UK and German filings by Unwired Planet were made by EIP's Benjamin Grzimek, a patent litigator based in Dusseldorf. Unwired Planet's patent attorney in the German cases is David Molnia, who is also licensed as a U.S. patent agent and counts IPCom, another NPE holding wireless patents that once belonged to a device maker that has meanwhile exited the handset market (Bosch), among his clients.

The press release states that the two venues, London and Dusseldorf, where chosen because they "are among the fastest and most efficient ways to protect intellectual property rights" and "offer strong remedies if a license cannot be reached on FRAND terms, including the potential for injunctive relief". This statement is very interesting when considering that three of the defendants (Samsung, Google, Huawei) are among the members of an industry coalition urging European policy-makers to ensure that Europe's future Unified Patent Court won't have rules of procedure that make it an exceedingly attractive venue for NPEs because of easy access to injunctive relief, coupled with German-style bifurcation (i.e., no full invalidity defense in an infringement proceeding because infringement and validity are determined separately). I guess these companies and their allies in the push for balanced rules, such as Apple, Microsoft and some major European mobile network operators, will point the European Commission and the governments of the EU member states to Unwired Planet's European lawsuits as yet another example of NPE litigation in Europe.

The EU's Internal Market Commissioner, Michel Barnier, did not appear to be impressed by that alliance's first open letter on the subject, but in response to the second one he wrote the following on Twitter: "[I]ndustry letter Unified #Patent Court: We share goal, balanced system closing gap that give way to #trolls. Confident we'll achieve that"

I'm not sure that Mr. Barnier is truly behind the cause of a balanced system, but I'd be happy to see some progress in the months ahead. The European Commission's Directorate-General for the Internal Market is, among other things, responsible for intellectual property policy, and it regrettably has a long-standing tradition of favoring the interests of the patent system (more patents, stronger enforcement) over those of the economy at large (higher-quality patents, balanced enforcement). But I'd be happy to be proven wrong and to see Mr. Barnier deliver on the tweet I just quoted...

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Saturday, March 8, 2014

Samsung withdraws standard-essential patents from second California litigation with Apple

Very late on Friday, Apple and Samsung filed a stipulation with the United States District Court of California that narrows their second case in that district in advance of the trial scheduled to begin on March 31. Samsung agreed to dismiss without prejudice (i.e., it could reassert in subsequent litigation) three of its asserted patent claims. As a result, its offensive case at the upcoming trial involves one claim each from two non-standard-essential patents (claim 27 of the '449 patent and claim 15 of the '239 patent), but no standard-essential patents (SEPs) anymore. The asserted claims of the standard-essential '087 and '596 patents were withdrawn, as was claim 1 of the non-essential '239 patent.

Under the stipulation, Apple withdraws all of its counterclaims relating to Samsung's SEPs, including all FRAND counterclaims. I like the fact that the question of injunctive relief over SEPs won't come up in this litigation.

There's nothing in the stipulation that indicates why Samsung made this decision, but whatever the reason(s) may be, it's a good thing in my view. Samsung has already prevailed over Apple on SEPs in different jurisdictions (including at the ITC last year, though an import ban was ultimately vetoed). It makes sense for Samsung to focus on non-SEPs at the upcoming trial, and especially on its proven defensive strength.

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