Unwired Planet v Huawei: The First UK FRAND Determination

Abstract

On 5 April 2017, the High Court of England and Wales (the ‘English Court’) delivered its judgement on the ‘non-technical’ aspects of Unwired Planet v Huawei.1 This is the first decision of the English Courts that determines a FRAND rate for a licence of a portfolio of SEPs. The judgement offers crucial guidance on the law surrounding standardised technology, including the relevance of competition law, and will no doubt influence similar cases across the EU and further afield. This article will set out the background to the proceedings, summarise the key findings of the judgement and comment on the role of competition law in FRAND disputes in the future. The process of standardisation involves defining technical or quality requirements with which current or future products, production processes, services or methods may comply. This arises in many fields, including the telecommunications sector in which particular product and technical specifications are required to ensure compatibility and interoperability between the products of different manufacturers. For example, a standard has been developed for each of the ‘generations’ of mobile technology: 2G, 3G, and 4G. The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (‘ETSI’) is the organisation responsible for standards development in the telecommunications industry in Europe, and the 2G, 3G, and 4G standards developed by ETSI are now used worldwide.