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 **

A Happy New Year to all of our readers. Even during the recent break, the FRAND world kept on turning and we continued to monitor developments. Among the most significant was the announcement by the USPTO of the establishment of an SEP Working Group that will report directly to the office’s Director, John Squires. Its remit is threefold:

• to explore the restoration of strong, enforceable remedies for SEP holders;

• to encourage US participation in standards-setting; and

• to promote market transparency.

Given the importance of the connectivity technology underpinned by SEPs, many observers have found it strange that, until now, the US has seemingly chosen to watch from the sidelines as the Europeans – and latterly the Chinese, Indians, Brazilians and others – essentially dictated how FRAND licensing should work. Although the devil will be in the detail, and much of the heavy lifting will have to be done by Congress and the courts, this USPTO initiative clearly signals a change in thinking at the government level. That makes it well worth keeping a close eye on.

Elsewhere, the Tokyo High Court brokered a settlement of the high-profile litigation between Pantech and Google – a case in which it had previously issued Japan’s first-ever SEP-related injunction. At the UPC, meanwhile, Amazon has been threatened with sanctions by the Mannheim Local Division over non-compliance with an anti-interim licence injunction. There was news, too, of a deal between Adeia and Disney.

Please note that the 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 flagging.

Market

Pantech and Google have agreed a settlement of their SEP-related dispute, brokered by the Tokyo High Court. Read more (Toshifumi Futamata LinkedIn)

Adeia has announced a long-term media IP licence deal with Disney, resolving litigation between the companies. Read more (Adeia)

Oppo has transferred patents reading on V2X and base station technology to a Hong Kong-based NPE. Read more (Michael Ma)

Patent-intensive industries in China accounted for 13.38% of the country’s GDP in 2024, according to data released by the National Intellectual Property Administration and the National Bureau of Statistics. Read more (National Law Review)

Legal

The UPC’s Mannheim Local Division has threatened Amazon with sanctions for non-compliance with its earlier anti-interim licence injunction and has formally informed the European Commission of the order. Read more (ip fray) 🔒

Justice Meade of the UK High Court has rejected InterDigital’s argument that the court lacks jurisdiction to set a RAND rate. Read more (JUVE Patent)

More than 300 patent infringement lawsuits were filed in Germany’s Munich I Regional Court in 2025. Read more (ip fray)

Policy & Opinion

The USPTO has announced the formation of an SEP Working Group that will restore robust remedies for patent holders, encourage US leadership in standards development and engage with stakeholders from across the ecosystem. Read more (USPTO)

The China Intellectual Property Association has issued a report suggesting that courts should consider interim licences for SEP cases. Read more (Jing He LinkedIn)

Standards policy sits at a fragile intersection of access and incentives. When the boundaries between facilitation and redistribution blur, the system that produced global interoperability begins to erode. Read more (Jim Harlan LinkedIn)

Strategy & Analysis

Sisvel’s action-packed 2025 saw the company score big licensing wins, make major internal investments and lead significant industry initiatives. Read more (Sisvel Insights)

The Ericsson v Transsion case in Morocco will spotlight a jurisdiction with robust patent enforcement tools but no established SEP framework. Read more (BRELA Research LinkedIn)

Many of the important FRAND developments affecting US patents are now happening outside the country and 2025 set a high-water mark in this regard. Read more (Harfang IP)

Claims that AI will destroy standards may sound plausible, but they rest on a far too narrow understanding of what standards do. Read more (Jim Harlan LinkedIn)

The November IEEE 802.11 plenary in Bangkok signalled a clear shift in next-generation Wi-Fi work, tightening specifications, eliminating ambiguity and anchoring architectures to what is practically deployable. Read more (Ofinno)