Brussels, 20 March 2025 – The Higher Regional Munich Court’s decision in VoiceAge v HMD is yet another missed opportunity to provide legal certainty on licensing of standardised technologies, which has seen multiple businesses in Europe’s dragged into lengthy and costly litigation.
Ignoring the European Commission’s advice on interpretation of applicable EU law, the Higher Regional Munich Court today ruled in favour of VoiceAge EVS, a US patent assertion entity (aka “patent troll”). The court also dismissed the Commission’s call to refer to the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) for a preliminary ruling.
It is regrettable that the national court entirely dismissed the European Commission’s 2024 amicus curia outlining its interpretation of applicable EU law: the CJEU preliminary ruling in Huawei v ZTE. The Commission has asked the German courts to apply the CJEU Huawei v. ZTE framework consistently.
It is a step backwards for predictability and fairness in standard essential patent licensing and underlines the pressing need for an EU regulatory solution to address the inconsistencies and fragmentation of the licensing framework across Europe.
By proposing the regulation on standard essential patents (SEP Regulation), the EU was on track to establishing a system to fairly, transparently and predictably resolve disputes of this kind, without having to force companies through lengthy and costly patent litigation proceedings. Today’s court decision reinforces the need for a prompt regulatory solution.
The FSA has long called for eliminating obstacles for entire industries in Europe to thrive – from semiconductor manufacturers to smart energy solutions providers, to medical device manufacturers, to makers of devices that bring connectivity to every aspect of lives of European people. An incoherent framework for licensing standardised connectivity technologies has been a major roadblock in this respect.