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This week in IP: Nokia wins in Mannheim, Unwired Planet ruling scheduled, new IPR guidance out
Managing IP rounds up the latest patent, trademark and copyright news, including some stories you may have missed

Nokia defeats Daimler in SEP ‘holy war’ with German injunction
Germany’s Mannheim Regional Court ruled on Tuesday (August
18) that Daimler had demonstrated unwillingness to take a fair, reasonable and
non-discriminatory (FRAND) licence for Nokia’s LTE technology patents, and
rejected a request from Germany’s Federal Cartel Office to refer legal
questions to the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU).
The court referred to Daimler as an ‘unwilling licensee’ in
its ruling, meaning that it considered Daimler’s unwillingness to be evident in
its general licensing conduct. This part of the decision could affect other
lawsuits involving Daimler across Germany, and perhaps elsewhere.
With so much now at stake for Daimler, in-house sources tell
Managing IP that they are baffled by the behaviour of the car maker, which some
say appears to be engaged in a standard essential patent (SEP) licensing ‘holy
war’.
“It is as if Daimler is marching their suppliers into a holy
war, insisting on component level licensing,” says Eeva Hakoranta, chief
licensing officer at InterDigital in Finland and former head of IP at Nokia. “Several
alternative options are available but it seems like the people who are handling
this by Daimler and Continental don’t want to see, or refuse to see, any other
way than the one they insist on.”
Read more here.
Other Managing IP stories from the week that you might like
to read include:
- In-house: tough legislation needed to stop fake medicines
- ARIPO interview: how IP rights can boost Africa’s innovation prowess
- Survey: Companies will leverage patents as revenue driver
- Environment and enforcement: how brand counsel stay green
- Start-ups should balance costs but beware of trademark neglect
- Corona and 600 brands: protecting IP at AB InBev
- ITC helps brands crack down on counterfeits, but is underused
UK Supreme Court to rule on Unwired Planet case next week
The UK Supreme Court announced on Thursday (August 20) that
it would publish its judgment in Unwired
Planet v Huawei on Wednesday, August 26.
The court will hand down the ruling at 9.45am (BST) by video
link because of the ongoing COVID shutdown, which can be viewed on the court’s
website, and will not allow members of the public to watch the hand down in person
in the Supreme Court building.
The decision will cover whether English courts have the
power or jurisdiction to grant an injunction on a party that is infringing a UK
SEP unless the defendant enters into a global licence under a multinational
patent portfolio, and to determine the rates for that licence.
If the court answers that question in the affirmative, its
ruling will also cover whether England is the proper forum for this particular
claim.
The matter was appealed by Huawei to the Supreme Court after
the England and Wales Court of Appeal upheld the first instance judgment on Unwired Planet v Huawei, in a ruling
that, if upheld, will have profound implications for the telecommunications
sector and other industries investing in connected technologies.
The appeal court agreed with Mr Justice Birss (soon to be
Lord Justice Birss) in his ruling from 2017 that FRAND obligations can be met
if a standard essential patent owner offers a worldwide licence and that an
implementer that refuses to take such a licence could be subject to an
injunction to prevent further patent infringement.
Managing IP will publish its analysis of the pending Supreme
Court decision next week.
USPTO releases new PTAB guidance on inter partes reviews
On Tuesday, August 18, the USPTO issued new guidance on
patent challenges in inter partes reviews at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
The guidance focused on clearing up the confusion around IPR
institutions, specifically those on the basis of prior art consisting of patents
or printed publications.
It has been released because different interpretations of
when to limit applicant admitted prior art (AAPA) had caused confusion between
different PTAB panels.
The guidance ultimately advises that one, or multiple, prior
art patents or printed publications must be the basis of IPRs, and dictates
that mere statements in the specification of the challenged patent do not
qualify as grounds for an IPR.
The guidance essentially limits the use of AAPA, stating that
admissions by the applicant in the specification of the challenged patent
standing alone cannot be used as the basis for instituting an IPR, under either
Section 102 or Section 103.
Grounds relying solely or primarily on AAPA are fairly rare,
however, which means that the new guidance is unlikely to make a substantial difference
to the way most petitioners operate at the PTAB.
SCOTUS asked to review Stairway to Heaven copyright case
The copyright infringement lawsuit over Led Zeppelin's 1971 "Stairway
To Heaven" classic could be heard by US Supreme Court, should the court
accept a petition for writ of certiorari from the plaintiffs in this matter.
The petition
was filed on August 6 and a response
is due from the US’s highest court on September 10, 2020.
The case was launched in 2014 by the estate of late Spirit
guitarist Randy Wolfe, better known as Randy California, whose trust -
represented by lawyer Michael Skidmore - sought to claim that Stairway
co-writers Jimmy Page and Robert Plant had infringed on Spirit's 1968 track,
Taurus.
In March, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided to strike down the inverse ratio rule in a copyright case against Led Zeppelin.
"The [Ninth Circuit] opinion is a disaster for the
creatives whose talent is often preyed upon," the Wolfe estate wrote the
petition. "By the same token, it is a gift to the music industry and its
attorneys - enthusiastically received - by a circuit whose own judge once
observed: 'Our circuit is the most hostile to copyright owners of all the
circuits’.”
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