Welcome to the latest edition of the Sisvel Insights weekly round-up, aggregating news stories, analyses and data points affecting the SEP world that have caught our eye over the past seven days

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Last week’s news was dominated by a headline-grabbing ruling handed down by the England and Wales Court of Appeal. In a decision released on 1^st May, a three-judge panel increased a lower court FRAND royalties award of $56.4 million that Apple should pay Optis to $502 million plus interest. In total, that’s an amount in excess of $700 million. Notably, Birss LJ and Arnold LJ, the UK's two most experienced FRAND/SEP judges, were on the panel. The former probably has a more positive reputation among SEP holders than the latter, but in this case they both found for Optis and made a point of stating that they agreed with each other. The third judge Newey LJ concurred. The initial low award surprised many; such a huge increase will no doubt do the same. The UK courts have held the FRAND world’s attention for several years now. This decision will do nothing to reduce the intensity of the gaze.

Elsewhere, Qualcomm and InterDigital announced strong financial results for the most recent quarter, while legislation designed to reform the US patent eligibility and post-grant review systems was reintroduced in the Senate. Look out too for an in-depth interview with Sisvel Japan’s new MD, Yoshinori Shimizu, in which he explains why patent value creation opportunities are on the rise in the country.

Please note that inclusion of a piece in the list below does not signify agreement with what is stated in the linked article, just that we believe it is of interest and worth pointing out.

Market

Qualcomm Technology Licensing reported over $1.3 billion in quarterly earnings and began to recognise royalty revenue from its deal with Transsion. Qualcomm - Earnings Release | IAM 🔒

InterDigital’s Q1 revenue came in above guidance at over $210 million. The licensor has deals with seven of the top 10 smartphone vendors. InterDigital – Press Release | IAM🔒

Japanese automakers Honda and Nissan became licensees under the Avanci 5G Vehicle programme. Nissan joins Avanci 5G: latest in wave of new licensees, licensors – ip fray

Advanced Codec Technologies and TCL settled a dispute over audio patents following mediation by the Supreme People’s Court of China. TCL, ACT settle SEP licensing dispute through mediation by China's top court | MLex 🔒

Patents declared as essential to technological standards adopted at ETSI, the IEEE and the ITU-T are now marked as such and searchable in WIPO’s PATENTSCOPE database. PATENTSCOPE now includes Standard Essential Patent Declarations - WIPO

Legal

The English Court of Appeal ordered Apple to pay more than $700 million in royalties and interest to Optis. Judgment – Full Text | ip fray | IAM 🔒

Netflix filed a second US countersuit against Broadcom in the pair’s dispute over video streaming and other technologies. Netflix ramps up pressure on Broadcom, files second countersuit in Northern District of California – ip fray

Policy & Opinion

The European Commission will look to advance the ideas behind the SEP regulation “whether it’s a new proposal or we approach it from a different angle,” Stéphane Séjourné has said. EU standard-essential patent reforms could be resurrected - Pinsent Masons

Recent developments suggest US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is taking a close interest in the USPTO. Aggressive USPTO Policy Push Suggests 'It's Lutnick's Show' - Law360 🔒

US Senators Thom Tillis and Chris Coons held a press conference on Capitol Hill to discuss the re-introduction of PERA and the PREVAIL Act, legislation focused on patent eligibility and post-grant challenges, respectively. Full Press Conference - YouTube

Strategy & Analysis

Japanese patent owners are increasingly speaking the language of IP value, Sisvel Japan’s new MD says in an interview. Sisvel | Patent value creation opportunities are growing in Japan

Why injunctions in Brazil are so common and so powerful. Injunction culture: understanding Brazil’s approach to urgent IP relief - IAM 🔒

An analysis of 44 Chinese SEP invalidation cases reveals a judicial shift in priority disputes. From 81% to 33%: The Shift in China’s SEP Priority Examination and its Global Impact - PurpleVine

Baidu is the top Chinese patentee in large language models, an area where the government is encouraging the formation of a domestic patent pool. Baidu leads the pack in LLM patents as China's government eyes creating AI pool - IAM🔒