The legal dispute between the Finnish mobile communications equipment company Nokia andDaimlerbecause of patent infringement ends up before the European Court of Justice. The Düsseldorf Regional Court decided on Thursday to submit a number of questions to the court in Luxembourg to clarify the patent dispute. Among other things, this involves the licensing of patents within multi-level supply chains. The infringement suit before the court will now be suspended. An appeal against the decision can be lodged with the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court.
Overall, Nokia has filed ten lawsuits against the Dax group on various technical elements in the dispute over who has to pay license fees for telecommunications technology in the car. Nokia was able to prevail before the district courts of Mannheim and Munich. The Munich judges also upheld a lawsuit brought by the Japanese technology supplier Sharp against Daimler in a similar proceeding. The Stuttgart-based car manufacturer appealed against all judgments to his disadvantage. Four proceedings were suspended so that the Federal Patent Court can review the legal validity of the patents.
Nokia is committed to working together
The dispute is about a fundamental dispute that the car manufacturer has been waging with the technology provider for a long time. The question is who will pay the license fee for the so-called standard essential patents on communications technology 5G Should pay: the car manufacturer, as Nokia is demanding, or the supplier, in whose component for networking the vehicle the technology is integrated – Daimler considers that to be correct.
The lawsuits are delicate for the carmaker because, if the other party succeeds, they will result in a court-ordered ban on vehicle sales. However, Nokia would have had to deposit seven billion euros in Mannheim and 18 million euros in Munich as a pledge in the event that Daimler would win in the last instance and could demand compensation.
Nokia has not yet put a stop on sales. An agreement with Daimler is important to the company: “We can win more if we work together to deliver innovation to consumers than if we fight each other in courts,” Nokia said at the end of October after its points win in Munich.