OPENING
STATEMENTS
less,” Frohwitter says.
According to Frohwitter, Nokia had
been in negotiations for five years. He
says litigation was originally initiated
by Nokia, which sought a declaratory
judgment in Mannheim and agreed
to fair and reasonable licensing fees.
But it balked at IPCom’s definition: 5
percent of Nokia’s mobile phone sales
in countries covered by Bosch patents,
or €600 million a year—totaling €12
billion over 20 years. IPCom then
sought the injunction. Both cases are
currently ongoing.
Sabine Rojahn, a partner in Taylor
Wessing’s Munich office, says German law tends to work very much
in favor of the patent owner. IPCom
has an advantage in bringing the suit
in Mannheim’s regional court, which
specializes in patent infringement
cases, Rojahn notes. The Mannheim
court rules on whether a patent has
been infringed before the federal pat-
ent court in Munich decides on validity. In addition to seeking damages,
patent owners have an automatic right
to an injunction if infringement is
found—before the federal court has
ruled on validity, says Rojahn. Also, “if a
patent troll wins damages, the infringer
question in U.S. courts.
Frohwitter said both Bosch and
IPCom played by the SSO rules. He
says IPCom’s technology has been
licensed amicably to other companies, including Siemens AG, Motorola,
Inc., Philips Electronics and Alca-
In Germany, the law favors patent holders:
an infringer can be forced to pay back gross
revenues on a product, not just its profit.
can be forced to pay back its gross revenues for a product as damages,” she
says, “and not just its net profit.”
Duncan Curley, director and
founder of Innovate Legal Services,
a London IP boutique, says Nokia’s
response suggests that it may question
whether Bosch fully disclosed all its
patents as required by standards-set-ting organizations (SSOs), a familiar
tel-Lucent—and a settlement has
just been reached with Research in
Motion, Ltd., the Canadian maker of
BlackBerry devices.
Whatever decision the German
courts reach will apply only in Germany—a fact that so far has discouraged patent troll activity in Europe.
But if IPCom wins even a fraction of
what it’s asking, that could change.
Now you
don’t have
to choose.
www.cantorcolburn.com
Managing Partners:
Michael A. Cantor and Philmore H. Colburn II
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