Next month, the Court of Appeal in London will hear InterDigital's appeal of a FRAND judgment in its dispute with Lenovo that was largely seen as a victory for Lenovo and its Motorola Mobility subsidiary (and, in conjunction with the High Court of Justice ruling in Optis v. Apple, has led Lenovo (in its dispute with Ericsson) and other net licensees of standard-essential patents (such as Tesla) to run to the High Court of Justice seeking leverage in global disputes). Meanwhile, the Munich I Regional Court has handed down a standard-essential patent injunction in InterDigital's favor, as ip fray was quick to report on LinkedIn.

Here are the two companies' statements.

1) InterDigital (press release; corporate website)

InterDigital, Inc. (Nasdaq: IDCC), a mobile, video and AI technology research and development company, today announced it has been awarded an injunction against Lenovo by a court in Germany.

The Regional Court in Munich held that Lenovo infringes InterDigital’s patent-in-suit covering 4G and 5G devices, that InterDigital has acted in a FRAND manner at all times, and that Lenovo is an unwilling licensee who has not acted in line with widely recognized FRAND principles. This is a first instance decision which can be appealed.

“The strength of our portfolio and the quality of our standards contributions have once again been recognized by a court,” commented Josh Schmidt, Chief Legal Officer, InterDigital. “Following the court’s finding that Lenovo’s behavior constitutes hold-out, we hope Lenovo reverses course and finally takes a fair and reasonable license.”

2) Lenovo (emailed statement, shared by ip fray on LinkedIn)

As a global technology leader Lenovo respects the effort and investment that drive innovation, and we are both a licensor and a willing licensee of intellectual property. Regarding the Interdigital (IDC) case, we respect the Munich Court’s decision but do not agree with it given our belief that IDC has violated its own legal obligations to license its technology on Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) terms to either Lenovo or our third-party suppliers. Access to standardized technology on FRAND terms is critical to the future of the global tech industry; we will continue to fight for transparency in licensing negotiations and against companies seeking excessive rates for their patent portfolios. Innovation must be both accessible and affordable, and IDC’s unreasonable global patent licensing behaviors and fees disadvantage German customers, especially consumers by reducing access to the latest technologies and driving up prices for tech products. We look forward to the next stage of the proceedings and our appeal.“

At this stage, ip fray is not in a position to comment as neither the judgment nor any specific information on the court's rationale are known (beyond the two litigants' public statements).