SEP & FRAND

Standard Essential Patent (SEP) litigation requires a deep understanding of standardised technologies, patent litigation strategies and competition law / FRAND licensing. We are at the forefront of this developing area of law, having advised and represented clients in many of the most prominent and influential cases in the sector. With our deep knowledge of the global litigation landscape, we can assist both patentees and implementers in navigating the various national litigation and ADR venues to develop and action successful strategies to achieve their commercial goals.

We are extremely familiar with the standardisation landscape and process, the court rules and expectations as to how FRAND licenses should be negotiated and how such negotiations take place in practice, as well as the complex arguments raised in court and ADR proceedings, such as hold up, hold out, royalty stacking, comparable licences, “top down” and “bottom up” valuation exercises..

In addition to deep litigation expertise in the sector, many of our lawyers are physicists, computer scientists and engineers, which assists them in getting straight to the key technical issues in SEP infringement and validity disputes.

"The firm has exceptional breadth of experience and technical know-how – both legally and in the TMT sector. there are very few firms in the UK which have the breadth of experience and quality of personnel"
Legal 500

Example Cases

  • Unwired Planet v Huawei (telecommunications / FRAND licensing)
  • Vestel v HEVC Advance & Philips (HEVC codec / FRAND licensing / jurisdiction challenge)
  • IPCom v Xiaomi (telecommunications / FRAND licensing)
  • IPCom v Lenovo (telecommunications / FRAND licensing)
  • TCT v Ericsson (telecommunications / FRAND licensing)
  • Vringo v ZTE (telecommunications / FRAND licensing)
  • LG v Sony (blu-ray technology / FRAND licensing)
  • Philips & Others v Alba (MPEG-2 / FRAND licensing)