UPC_CFI_135/2024

Decisions and documents (1)

• 2026-03-18procedural

  Klägerin:

  Dolby International AB

  Beklagte:

  Arçelik A.Ş; Beko Germany GmbH

  1. A dominant position within the meaning of Article 102 TFEU on the relevant market may arise if products (here: smart TVs) that are compatible with a common standard cannot be offered without a licence for the patent in suit. The decisive factor is that consumers expect that smart TVs include all common audio and video codecs and can therefore decode all content that is encoded accordingly by service providers used for encoding. 2. Regarding the fundamental classification of the FRAND negotiation programme after Huawei v. ZTE, the Düsseldorf Local Division agrees with the Mannheim Local Division (UPC_CFI_210/2023, Decision of 22 November 2024 – Panasonic v. OPPO) and the Munich Local Division (UPC_CFI_9/2023, Decision of 18 December 2024 – Huawei v. Netgear). Any differences between the two Local Divisions in the application of the principles under Huawei v. ZTE are irrelevant in the case decided by the Düsseldorf Local Division. 3. In accordance with the negotiation programme established in Huawei v. ZTE, if the infringer fails to initially express its willingness to conclude a licensing agreement (“step 2”), in re- sponse to a compliant notification of infringement/invitation thereto (“step 1”), the exami- nation is terminated. In this case, the question of whether the patent holder’s offer is FRAND does not need to be investigated.

  🔒 Unlock Official PDF