Author: Yellow Warbler
In yesterday's U.S. patent litigation record, Fiat Chrysler FCA, Ford, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Volkswagen all became defendants in patent litigation, and the plaintiffs came from multiple patent entities, including NPEs, and of all the cases, the most notable was undoubtedly the Volkswagen lawsuit related to Avanci.
It seems that December is indeed Avanci Month, and the news of new patent lawsuits related to the automotive patent pool Avanci has continued, and the third NPE of the Avanci members has just come forward to sue Ford (correction: The description of the smart part of the Sisvel article is wrong, and it is GM, not Ford), followed by another Avanci member who has never participated in the exhibition before, who has stepped forward to challenge the public.
Acer, one of Avanci's members, sued Volkswagen in the Eastern Virginia District Court for infringement of five of its 4G, LTE-related standard essential patents EP: US8,483,677, US8,787,304, US8,798,633, US9,363,059, US9,426,765 in the District Court for the District of Eastern Virginia.
Volkswagen is currently one of the Avanci licensees, but at the moment Volkswagen is opting for 2G/3G in the Avanci licensing option, which is $9 per vehicle, and does not choose a license package that includes 4G.
Source: Avanci website
In the indictment, Acer said the above patents are part of Avanci's patent pool. The reason for suing Volkswagen this time is precisely because since the beginning of Avanci's operation in 2016, it has been discussing relevant licenses with Volkswagen, but in the license agreement between Volkswagen and Avanci in 2019, only 2G/3G was selected, and 4G was not included, but Volkswagen has been using 4G technology in the product.
On May 6, 2019, Avanci announced that six Volkswagen brands had reached licensing agreements with them, but at the time did not propose what kind of licenses the six brands were granted:
Volkswagen, Bentley, MAN, Scania, Seat and Skoda Become Licensees of the Avanci Marketplace, Obtaining a License to Essential Patented Technology for Connected Cars
In fact, prior to this, on April 25, 2019, Avanci separately announced that Volkswagen's Audi and Porsche had reached a license agreement, and in the official announcement, it was clearly stated that the two brands were licensed for 2G/3G/4G.
As can be seen in the indictment, Avanci said in subsequent negotiations on 4G that Volkswagen adopted a "delaying" strategy. In fact, I suspect that "procrastination" may not be the main reason to be hit, but the real reason is that, as mentioned in the indictment, Volkswagen is trying to organize some auto industry players to join forces to create a "licensee negotiation group" of LNG licensees.
Source: Indictment
This explains why at IAM's Auto IP conference in Europe, Qualcomm's vice president made a startling statement in public: licensees who set up LNG should be founded to be in prison for violating antitrust laws. The harshness of the wording seems to be a warning from Volkswagen about the establishment of LNG at that time.
It's just that Qualcomm said that is the law of the United States, it should be decades earlier, as for now, even outside the United States, whether LNG will be the same recognition, I think there is still reason to question, later we will focus on this issue to do research and discussion. Moreover, this topic is actually within the scope of the discussion at the relevant SEP meeting organized by the European Commission, so how to determine the future needs to continue to be discussed.
It is worth noting that the indictment also mentions sources of information that support the public in "engaging in small circles", from two self-media blogs in the industry that have been researching and speaking on SEP. The two bloggers quickly updated their blogs after learning of the lawsuit, with Mueller commenting more and not knowing how Mueller felt when he didn't know until his content became material to attack the public.
In short, this patent struggle in the automotive industry may now officially enter its climax.
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