Sisvel founder voted into IP Hall of Fame; ASUS takes Wi-Fi Multimode licence; NPE injunction bid fails in EDTX; key Indian SEP decision overturned; plus much more
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.
** Click here to get this newsletter delivered directly to your inbox every Monday **
Last week was a proud one for Sisvel, with the news that founder Roberto Dini has been voted into the IP Hall of Fame. This is a well-deserved honour for a man who, in 1982, did something extraordinary. The day before the CAFC was created, seven years before Marshall Phelps joined IBM, 18 years before Intellectual Ventures was established and Rembrandts in the Attic was published, he established Sisvel in Turin with a very simple proposition: if you aggregate patents owned by a group of innovative companies and offer them as a single package for licence, you create value not only for the patent holders but for licensees, too.
From its beginnings as a business focused on Italian television IP, Sisvel grew into a multinational operation with a series of pools that generated billions of dollars for its licensees, much of which were reinvested into further R&D. To have done this from Italy โ hardly a patent hotspot โ and with nothing to emulate only magnifies this achievement.
Elsewhere, ASUS took a licence to the patents in Sisvelโs Wi-Fi Multimode pool, so resolving litigation with pool licensors Huawei, Philips and Wilus; while NPE Collision Communications failed to persuade Judge Gilstrap in the Eastern District of Texas that it should be awarded an injunction against Samsung, despite an intervention from the Department of Justice and the USPTO. There was news, too, that a decision in a high-profile Indian SEP case has been overturned.
Please note that the inclusion of a piece in the list below does not signify agreement with what is stated in the linked article โ just that we believe it is of interest and worth flagging.
Market
Sisvel founder Roberto Dini has been voted into the IP Hall of Fame as the recipient of the Q Todd Dickinson Award for outstanding contribution to the IP business ecosystem. Read more (IAM)๐. See also Sisvel LinkedIn
ASUS has taken a licence to the Sisvel Wi-Fi Multimode patent pool, ending litigation with Huawei, Philips and Wilus. Read more (Sisvel newsroom). See also Wilus, ip fray, Law360๐ and JUVE Patent
Five new licensors have joined the Sisvel POS pool, taking the total number of participating patent owners to over 20. Read more (Sisvel newsroom)
Via Licensing has issued a formal call for patents for its new NAND memory licensing programme. Read more (Via press release)
Former Sisvel executive Nick Dudziak has joined independent patent licensing company Equiviti. Read more (IAM)๐
Chinese automaker Geely has settled legal disputes with Avanci licensors Nokia and Longhorn IP. Read more (ip fray)
SIM IP has acquired a portfolio of video codec SEPs from Alibaba. Read more (ip fray)
Via Licensing has added a second licensee and two new licensors to its voice codec patent pool. It has also published royalty rates for the programme. Read more (Via Licensing)
Legal
Judge Gilstrap in the Eastern District of Texas has rejected an NPEโs injunction bid against Samsung despite a USPTO-DoJ intervention advocating a new approach to the eBay factors. Read more (ip fray) ๐
Indiaโs first post-trial SEP verdict โ a victory for Philips in a dispute over DVD technology โ has been set aside by the Delhi High Court. Read more (ip fray)๐. See also Spicy IP
A preliminary injunction awarded to ZTE against Samsung in Brazil has been overturned by the Rio de Janeiro State Court of Appeals. Read more (ip fray) ๐
Acer and ASUS have been denied leave to appeal Nokiaโs recent High Court win in a follow-on decision that clarified several points regarding its proposed arbitration framework. Read more (MLex)๐. See also ip fray and IAM๐
ETRI has brought a US infringement action against Shenzhen Tenda alleging infringement of Wi-Fi 6 SEPs. Read more (PRIP Research)
Malikie Innovations has sued TCL in a US court over Wi-Fi and AV1-related patents. Read more (ip fray)
Policy & Opinion
New US guidance governing voluntary standards development should be grounded in evidenceand make clear that participation in standards setting is presumptively pro-competitive, that pools incentivise standards-setting and that hold-out is real. Read more (Standards at Risk)
When it comes to SEP licensing, what really matters is taking positions that incentivise the contribution of cutting-edge technologies to standardisation and their widespread dissemination. Read more (Patricio Delgado, LinkedIn)
High-quality innovation is the overarching goal in Chinaโs blueprint for IP policy work in 2026. Read more (MLex)๐
Strategy & Analysis
The legal principles behind Indiaโs framework for interim SEP royalties are also applicable in common law jurisdictions such as Singapore, Malaysia and South Africa. Read more (IAM) ๐
A split has emerged between former Directors of the USPTO on the availability of injunctive relief in patent cases. Read more (MLex) ๐
