Will China’s New Anti-Suit Injunctions Shift the Balance of Global FRAND Litigation?

- 22 October 2020

Trade topics: FRAND, Voluntary Licensing

By issuing anti-suit injunctions (ASIs) in Conversant v. Huawei and InterDigital v. Xiaomi, Chinese courts have signaled a new willingness to vie for jurisdictional authority in global battles over standard-essential patents and FRAND licensing. While the Supreme People’s Court in Conversant largely followed the pattern of US and UK courts that have issued ASIs in similar cases, the ruling of the Wuhan court in InterDigital is far broader in two major respects. First, its geographic scope is not limited to the country in which InterDigital sought injunctive relief (India), but extends to all jurisdictions in the world. Second, it prohibits InterDigital from seeking a determination of a global FRAND rate for its 3G/4G patents anywhere in the world. In view of these two recent cases, China has clearly joined the international race to be the jurisdiction of choice for determining FRAND royalty rates in global disputes involving standard-essential patents.

Author