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Recent Articles

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  20.03.2023

  International

  UK An­nounces it will be­come a party to the Singa­pore Con­ven­tion on Me­di­ation

  It has been announced that the UK will become a party to the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation (the “Singapore Convention”), as an “important signal of [the UK’s] intentions to remain a world leader in this area and as a clear indication of the UK’s commitment to mediation”.The Singapore ConventionThe Singapore Convention was adopted by the UN in December 2018, opened for signatures in August 2019 and in force by September 2020. It currently has 55 signatories, 10 of whom have ratified. It creates a...

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  20.03.2023

  Europe

  Out with the old, in with the new? Con­sid­er­a­tions for pat­entees in opt­ing out of the Uni­fied Pat­ent Court

  So far in this series of blog posts, we began with an article that highlighted some of the key changes between the current European system of patent prosecution and enforcement and the new Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court (UPC), set to become operational from 1 June 2023.  In part two, we considered the interesting procedural features of the UPC and how they might influence a patentee’s decision to opt in or out of the regime.In this part three, we discuss some of the practical and strategic considerations that patentees should weigh up when deciding whether to opt out of the...

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  17.03.2023

  International

  In­ter­Di­git­al v Len­ovo – High Court sets glob­al FRAND li­cence terms

  The UK High Court has handed down its decision in the FRAND trial of the InterDigital v Lenovo litigation. It concerned InterDigital, an American company holding patents relevant to 3G, 4G and 5G technology and Lenovo, a Chinese ‘implementer’ of that technology. Lenovo has been ordered to pay InterDigital a royalty of $138.7 million (a rate of $0.175 per cellular unit) for its use of InterDigital’s 3G, 4G and 5G patents in its products. This is only the second decision of its kind in the UK (most such cases settle out of court).In short, the Court was asked to set global terms...

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  17.03.2023

  EU

  Mer­ger con­trol re­view be­low fil­ing thresholds – the ECJ Tower­cast judg­ment adds one more ar­row to the quiver

  On 16 March 2023, the ECJ decided that a M&A transaction, which was not subject to ex-ante EU merger control, can be reviewed – from an ex post perspective – as to whether the acquirer (through the acquisition) abused its dominant position within the meaning of Article 102 TFEU (prohibition of the abuse of a dominant position). This allows national competition authorities to apply Art. 102 TFEU to non-notifiable mergers. The judgment therefore provides competition authorities in the EU with a significant additional tool for their scrutiny of transactions, which are not reportable...

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  15.03.2023

  EU

  State aid: re­vi­sion of GBER and Tem­por­ary Crisis Frame­work to en­cour­age green and di­git­al trans­ition in the EU

  FR

  On 9 March 2023, the European Commission approved revisions to the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER) and the Temporary Crisis Framework with the aim of enabling Member States to provide the necessary support to key sectors in line with the Green Deal Industrial Plan in order to accelerate the EU's green and digital transition.The GBER allows Member States to declare certain categories of aid compatible with the internal market without prior notification to the European Commission, provided that they comply with the general and specific conditions set out in the GBER. The GBER, which has...

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  13.03.2023

  Europe

  State aid: the Court of Justice of the EU an­nuls Com­mis­sion de­cision in the Sardini­an air­ports case

  FR

  On 17 November 2022, the Court of Justice of the EU held two judgments annulling the rulings of the General Court of the EU of 13 May 2020 for case easyJet (T-8/18) and case Volotea (T-607/17), which had upheld a European Commission decision of 29 July 2016 declaring partially incompatible an aid scheme of the Region of Sardinia in favour of easyJet (case C-343/20) and Volotea (case C-331/20). The Court also annulled the Commission decision as Volotea and easyJet are concerned because the Commission did not establish the existence of an abnormal advantage granted to these two airlines.BackgroundIn...

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