“It’s too early to tell how much, if any, of IPCom’s $2 billion damages claim in Germany Apple will ultimately be ordered to pay. But even before the trial begins, a long list of German patent litigation and prosecution firms is sure to benefit from this litigation and IPCom’s other standard-essential patent (SEP) disputes,” Florian Müller reports for FOS Patents.
“IPCom’s previous assertions of the patents-in-suit were heard by the panel Judge Andreas Voss (‘Voß’ in German) presides over. The Presiding Judge of the Mannheim Regional Court’s Second Civil Chamber (panel), Judge Dr. Holger Kircher, will be in charge of tomorrow’s trial,” Müller reports. “Judge Dr. Kircher hears many patent infringement cases and saw some of these lawyers only recently in connection with the now-settled Nokia-HTC dispute. Initially I thought he was rather plaintiff-friendly in one particular SEP-related context (Motorola v. Microsoft), but later I saw him dismiss and stay a number of Nokia lawsuits (though he also sided with Nokia on two patents). I don’t doubt anymore that he’s balanced. He’s always very well-prepared and usually makes clear at the very beginning of a trial which side faces a steep challenge.”
Müller writes, “I believe IPCom may very well be able to convince him of its infringement theories, but even if so, I doubt that he can be persuaded to award $2 billion in damages over a single FRAND-pledged SEP.”
Read more in the full article here.
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