Compass Lexecon Client Huawei Prevails on FRAND Issues in Chinese Court

Compass Lexecon Expert Dr. Elizabeth Wang Testifies Successfully at Trial

On January 11, 2018, the Intermediate People's Court in Shenzhen, China entered a ruling in favor of Compass Lexecon client Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., a leading smartphone manufacturer, in a patent infringement suit against Samsung that involved cross-licensing of wireless telecommunication patents on Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) terms. Compass Lexecon expert Dr. Elizabeth Wang submitted reports addressing economic issues and testified on behalf of Huawei at trial. The Court agreed with Dr. Wang on a range of key economic issues, including how to evaluate the relative strength of the parties' SEP patent portfolios and whether a particular past Huawei license should be considered as a comparable license.

The Court found that Samsung infringed Huawei's patent rights on two patents essential to the LTE standard. It also found that Huawei's licensing offers were consistent with FRAND and that Samsung "maliciously delayed negotiations" that constituted a breach of an obligation to license its SEPs on FRAND terms. The Court granted Huawei an injunction, ordering Samsung to immediately stop the manufacturing and sales of its infringing products in China.

Dr. Wang worked with Senior Consultant Professor Timothy Simcoe from Boston University and a team led by Kun Huang, Jason Wu, Elisabeth Browne and Allan Shampine.