UK Supreme Court dismisses Huawei and ZTE appeals
The United Kingdom’s Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed appeals by China’s Huawei and ZTE in patent disputes.
The appeals carried out by the Chinese companies are over infringement of these patents in mobile data technology with Unwired Planet International and Conversant Wireless.
Action was first brought forward by Unwired that claimed Huawei had infringed five UK patents that had been acquired from Ericsson and were said to be essential in mobile telecoms.
The second appeal concerned action brought by Conversant against Huawei and ZTE for infringing four of its UK patents, which had been acquired from Nokia.
Huawei and ZTE said that English Courts did not have jurisdiction to determine the validity of foreign patents. The judge who ruled against them said that there was jurisdiction as there was an international patent framework in place.
According to Reuters, Conversant’s CEO Boris Teksler said he was “very pleased” by the outcome.
“It confirms Conversant Wireless’ approach, that as a holder of cellular standard-essential patents, we can seek proper value for our patents without having to resort to what the UK courts themselves called the ‘madness’ of country-by-country licensing and related litigation."