InterDigital Inc (IDCC)

[olddog967]

u-blox seeks fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) licensing terms


Thalwil, Switzerland – January 2, 2019 – u-blox (SIX:UBXN), a global provider of leading positioning and wireless communication technologies, today announced that it has no choice but to file a lawsuit against Interdigital, Inc. in the United States District Court for Southern California in order to obtain a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) license to Interdigital’s patents. After two years of failed negotiations, despite its legal obligation to do so, Interdigital failed to offer u-blox a FRAND license agreement covering the sale of u-blox 2G, 3G and 4G products.

“u-blox respects the intellectual property rights of others and has always been and continues to be a willing licensee to standard essential patents (SEPs). It is how we do business”, said Thomas Seiler, CEO of u-blox. “We have therefore asked a court to review and determine the FRAND rate for the patents held by Interdigital. u-blox is a committed licensor for the benefit of our customers and we believe that our willingness to license also positively distinguishes u-blox within the module industry. To the extent that Interdigital is willing to reconsider their position, u-blox is open to further negotiations - but not to the detriment of the company, our customers or shareholders.”

Concurrent to filing the lawsuit, u-blox has also asked the court for an immediate Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) and preliminary injunction against Interdigital to avoid any disruption to its existing business relationships.

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Since it was announced that U-Blox extended an existing license in Oct 2017, not sure why this happened

http://ir.interdigital.com/file/Index?KeyFile=390670097