Regional Court Munich puts decision in ZTE vs Samsung on hold

The current case is one of eight actions — four at the UPC and four at the Regional Court Munich — in which ZTE and Samsung are going head to head over SEPs for 4G and 5G technology. Each party has sued the other over four of their own patents.

Today’s case concerns ZTE’s EP 2 375 827. The German Federal Patent Court had previously issued its preliminary opinion in the parallel nullity proceedings and, in doing so, expressed doubts as to the validity of the patent, sources say (case ID: 5 Ni 37/25). As a result, the 21st Civil Chamber at Munich Regional Court under presiding judge Hubertus Schacht suspended the proceedings in the infringement suit (21 O 366/25). This means a considerable delay, as a hearing in the nullity proceedings is scheduled for June next year.

In a parallel case regarding EP 2 654 356, the 7th Civil Chamber presided over by Oliver Schön last summer set out a new approach to FRAND proceedings. At the time it was unclear to what extent other chambers, particularly the 21st Civil Chamber, would agree with the 7th Chamber’s assessments. Today’s decision was expected to shed light on this.

Meanwhile, Samsung also sued its Chinese competitor at Munich Regional Court over two of its own patents. In late March, the 21st Civil Chamber dismissed the claim over EP 3 580 883 (21 O 3733/25).

Oral hearings in the cases regarding ZTE’s EP 356 and Samsung’s EP 3 625 887 will take place on 30 April before the 7th Civil Chamber (case IDs: 7 O 64/25 and 7 O 2750/25).

Parallel nullity suits regarding all four patents are pending at the German Federal Patent Court.

A run of bad luck

The development in EP 827 is good news for Samsung. So far, the global SEP dispute with ZTE has not gone well for the South Korean mobile phone giant. In the UK, after an initial success at the High Court, Samsung did not prevail with an application for an interim licence on appeal. Furthermore, Frankfurt Regional Court dismissed an antitrust action against ZTE in February. Samsung also had to withdraw a complaint to the ETSI against ZTE’s behaviour. Then came the recent defeat in the patent dispute over EP 883 at Munich Regional Court. In addition, the European Patent Office’s Opposition Division published a decision last week revoking Samsung’s EP 4 096 288.

EP 288 is one of four patents-in-suit over which the parties are currently fighting at the UPC. In March, the local division Mannheim suspended the proceedings regarding Samsung’s EP 288 pending the decision of the EPO (case ID: UPC_CFI_188/2025).

The Korean tech company also filed a second action against ZTE in Mannheim regarding Samsung’s EP 4 050 804 (case ID: UPC_CFI_189/2025).

The Mannheim local division will also hear two parallel UPC infringement actions filed by ZTE against Samsung. After hearing the case over EP 3 905 730 in March, the panel around Peter Tochtermann is expected to hand down a judgment by the end of April (case ID: UPC_CFI_850/2024). In addition, ZTE sued Samsung at the UPC over its EP 3 577 874 (case ID: UPC_CFI_847/2024).

Double bill for both

Each of the parties instructed two teams in Germany and one in the UK.

ZTE relies on core advisors Taliens and Vossius & Partner. Each firm is handling active and passive cases at the UPC and Munich Regional Court, while cooperating on all the questions regarding FRAND. While Taliens leads the national cases at the 7th Civil Chamber, Vossius is in charge of the proceedings at the 21st Civil Chamber.

The Taliens team consists of lead partner Thomas Lynker as well as Christian Werner, Thomas Reithmann, and Evelyn Höfer. In the proceedings at Frankfurt Regional Court, Monika Stöhr assists Lynker.

The Vossius team consists of litigation partners Georg Rauh and Kai Rüting, as well as lawyers Zhuomin Wu and Roman Scheibe. Vossius patent attorneys Christian Sandweg, Thomas Schwarze and Ingo Lummer are involved in all German and UPC cases, being in charge of the technical side of the proceedings. At the UPC, Jonathan Santman of Brinkhof is part of the team from alliance Vossius Brinkhof UPC Litigators.

In London, ZTE retained IP boutique Powell Gilbert to defend against the UK lawsuit. Ari Laakkonen, Pete Damerell, and Raj Jagdev lead the team.

Juliane Buchinski, who coordinates ZTE’s in-house litigation in Europe, is reportedly also involved.

A&O hand in hand with Rospatt

Samsung also retained two law firms at the UPC and Munich Regional Court. While regular counsel Rospatt handles active claims for the Korean client, A&O Shearman handles Samsung’s defence against ZTE’s infringement claims.

Munich-based A&O Shearman partners Jan Ebersohl and Denise Benz led the current case for the Korean client at the national court. Associates Timo Merle, Anna Nottingham, Anne-Sophie Moser, Nicolas Handrick, and Lukas Paysan assisted.

Düsseldorf-based boutique Rospatt includes partners Hetti Hilge and Thomas Musmann, who are in the lead, working with partner André Sabellek and associates Jan-Kristian Kritzler, Melanie Strobel, and Tabea Schäfer.

Patent attorney Joel Nägerl of Zimmermann & Partner advises on the technical side of the cases. He also leads the nullity case at the German Federal Patent Court.

Kirkland & Ellis acted for Samsung in the recent UK proceedings. The team around Nicola Dagg also coordinates the pan-European litigation.