A bilateral license with a single licensor is un-FRAND if the licensor is member of a successful joint licensing program

A bilateral license between only one licensor and one licensee does not constitute a FRAND solution if the licensor has already licensed his patents under a successful joint licensing program with many other licensees.

In this ruling, as in two other published rulings of the other three chambers of the Regional Court Duesseldorf, the court came to the same conclusion with a slightly different formulation of the reasoning, which might be interesting to read with its variations. The common conclusion in a nutshell is that a bilateral license between only one licensor and one licensee does not constitute a FRAND solution if the licensor has already licensed his patents under a successful joint licensing program with many other licensees. Against the background of the established licensing practice in the form of a patent pool license, it is questionable for reasons of non-discrimination if the plaintiff occasionally - without any discernible objective reason - licenses only its own portfolio.

Download full judgment (machine translation)

Download Judgment 4b O 15/17 (machine translation)

Download Judgment 4c O 3/17 (machine translation)

Further Judgments

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