Law360 Quotes Prof. Cotter on U.K. Supreme Court Patent Case

An October 25, 2019 Law360 article titled “FRAND At UK’s Top Court: What You Need To Know,” discusses recent hearings before the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in the joined cases Unwired Planet v. Huawei and Conversant v. Huawei and ZTE. In both cases, the plaintiff owns a global portfolio of standard-essential patents (SEPs) subject to a commitment to license them on “fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory” (FRAND) terms. The question presented is whether, in a case involving the alleged infringement of a small number of FRAND-committed U.K. SEPs, it is appropriate for the Patents Court of England and Wales to determine the terms of a global license to the plaintiff’s portfolio (as opposed to determining the terms of U.K. license only). The article quotes Professor Tom Cotter, who notes among other things that, while “[t]here are some efficiencies in having one court make that determination,” it might be “inappropriate for the court of one single country to make this decision for the entire world.” Cotter also recently spoke on these issues at a conference at Oxford University, and published an expert analysis on the subject earlier this month in Law360.