Case law

The priority claim of an international patent application by several applicants is formally valid as long as all applicants of the priority application are among the applicants of the international patent application - even if the applicants of the international patent application include applicants for different states.

No right to obtain a license restricted to Germany without taking a worldwide license. No adjustment of royalties for China required. Confirmation of FRAND compliance in case of 2000+ existing license agreements – injunction claim available.

The FCJ (BGH) ruled that a data sequence as a process product of a patented video compression process enjoys product protection. If such a data sequence is stored on a data carrier, the protection also extends to this data carrier.

If there is a market acceptance for granting a worldwide license to all affiliated companies, this is decisive for the assessment of FRAND.

The fact that a standard essential patent (SEP) is licensed only requires FRAND licensing conditions if this patent provides market dominance (MDSEP).

In this judgment, the FCJ (BGH) clarifies the requirements for new auxiliary requests in nullity appeal proceedings and for the infringement defendant's legitimate interest to take legal action after expiry of the patent.