By LU Zhe and ZHAO Qishan

•   In December 2019, Xiaomi sued Sisvel before Beijing Intellectual Property Court, requesting a determination of SEP royalty rates in Chinese market. This is a new lawsuit between the parties following the proceedings in the UK, the Netherlands and Italy.

  In December 2019, Xiaomi announced that it had filed patent litigation against Sisvel before Beijing Intellectual Property Court, seeking a determination of royalty rates for all the SEPs concerning wireless communication technology that Sisvel owned in China. According to Xiaomi, this is the first suit over FRAND rates determination for Chinese SEPs which it has filed. Prior to the litigation in China, there were already lawsuits between Sisvel and Xiaomi over telecommunication-related SEPs respectively in the UK, the Netherlands and Italy.

  UK Proceedings

  On 23 April 2019, Sisvel, together with Mitsubishi Electric, filed an infringement action before the UK High Court against five defendants including Xiaomi, Archos, Sun Cupid Technology, Nuu Mobile UK and OPPO. The plaintiffs requested an infringement declaration of three SEPs (EP 1 471 657, EP 2 254 259 and EP 1 925 142) which are part of the Mobile Communication Program portfolio (MCP portfolio) owned by Sisvel. Apart from that, the plaintiffs also requested a declaration that Sisvel's licensing terms for the MCP portfolio were FRAND or alternatively, a determination of the global FRAND rates by the court. During the proceedings, Archos settled with the two plaintiffs, with the remaining four defendants still in dispute with the plaintiffs. The parties have scheduled a technical trial for December 2020 and a Case Management Conference for 1 December to 2 December where the next steps and the following technical and FRAND trials will be decided. Meanwhile, Xiaomi is challenging the jurisdiction of UK courts to determine global licensing rates.

  NL and ITL Proceedings

  Shortly afterwards, a summary proceedings in the Netherlands were initialed by Sisvel over two SEPs that are also part of the MCP Portfolio. On 29 May 2019, Sisvel requested preliminary injunction ("PI") against Xiaomi before the District Court of The Hague. However, the PI claim was later dismissed on 1 August 2019 by the court due to lack of sufficient urgency and adverse impact the injunction would impose on Xiaomi's interests. According to a report released on August 19, Sisvel would appeal the above judgement[1]. An oral hearing about one of the two patents in suit is going to take place in February 2020. Sisvel also sued Xiaomi in Italy, with no details disclosed yet.

  [1] Considering the release date of the report, Sisvel should have already appealed the judgement by the District Court of The Hague. However, no more up-to-date news or announcement could be found. For more details about the report, please visit: https://www.juve-patent.com/news-and-stories/cases/sisvel-denied-preliminary-injunction-against-xiaomi-for-seps/