Lenovo is claiming a victory of sorts in a UK Court of Appeal ruling that bumps up the amount it owes US patentholder InterDigital in a telecoms licensing dispute - the payment is much lower than the total it might have had to cough up.

The China-based multinational tech biz was ordered to pay InterDigital $138.7 million by a London High Court last year in a long-running quarrel over licensing rates for patents the latter holds covering technologies in 3G, 4G, and 5G communications used in some Lenovo products.

InterDigital appealed, claiming the judge should have ruled that Lenovo owed it a larger sum, based on royalty rates it was seeking. It reckoned this came to $388.5 million, plus interest at 4 percent compounded quarterly amounting to $129.3 million, making a grand total of $517.8 million.

The Court of Appeal of England and Wales has now ruled that the royalty rate Lenovo should be charged is 22.5 US cents per unit, Lenovo told us, which is 5 US cents higher than the 17.5 US cents set by the judge Mr Justice Mellor last year, but much lower than the rate of 49-50 US cents that InterDigital was seeking.

As a result of this, the amount Lenovo is expected to pay InterDigital now comes to $178.3 million, or approximately $240 million with compound interest.

Lenovo told The Register it is now offering InterDigital 22.5 US cents per cellular unit to license future products, and hopes this fully resolves the dispute.

Both parties are claiming it as a win, so perhaps this will be the end of the matter.

"We are pleased with the Court's commitment to confirm fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms for licensing, and are encouraged by what this decision means for ongoing negotiations with InterDigital, wider industry IP litigation cases, and most importantly, how this facilitates the proliferation of affordable innovation to customers around the world," Lenovo's John Mulgrew, Deputy General Counsel & Chief Intellectual Property Officer, said in a statement.

"Given the decision is far closer to Lenovo's original position than InterDigital's, we believe this is a further win for Lenovo and reinforces our continued commitment to FRAND licensing and being a willing licensee in the face of supra-FRAND offers and behaviour," he added.

InterDigital sees it differently, however, hailing it as a comprehensive win and issuing a statement that the Court of Appeal has ruled in its favor, including raising the amount that Lenovo must pay for a license to InterDigital's cellular standard essential patents (SEPs)

"This decision better recognizes the value of our cellular wireless innovation and gives InterDigital another court win in our licensing dispute with Lenovo," the company's Chief Legal Officer Josh Schmidt said.

"In addition, this decision takes a very important step towards achieving a balance between innovator and implementer by making it harder for implementers like Lenovo to delay taking a license to patented technologies that are the bedrock of connected devices," he added.

"Lenovo remains unlicensed to our cellular portfolio since the beginning of this year, and we remain committed to signing an agreement that includes fair compensation for our patented technologies."

The root of this case was a disagreement over what represents a fair rate for the licensing of standard essential patents (SEPs), which are patents covering technology that is essential to implement a standard, in this case cellular telecommunications.

As The Register has noted before, InterDigital has been involved in a number of these cases concerning Nokia, Huawei, Samsung, and others. Lenovo was also being sued by Ericsson in the US last year in a similar case related to non-payment of license fees while negotiations over them dragged out over many years. ®

https://www.theregister.com//2024/07/15/lenovo_hit_with_higher_patent/