ZTE sues Samsung with Taliens and Vossius

After the two Asian mobile phone manufacturers did not extend an existing licence agreement beyond 2024, Samsung filed suit at the UK High Court shortly before Christmas. The Korean mobile phone giant is asking the UK court to set a FRAND rate for ZTE’s global cellular portfolio (case ID: HP-2024-000044). In addition to various ZTE companies, Samsung is also suing the distributors Livewire Telecom and EFones Com.

ZTE reacted swiftly. As reported by the UK publication IAM earlier this week, ZTE has filed patent infringement suits against Samsung in China, Germany and at the UPC. The company filed two lawsuits at the UPC local division Mannheim (case ID: ACT_68656/2024).

According to JUVE Patent information, ZTE has also filed at least one lawsuit at the Munich Regional Court. The lawsuits in Germany concern the 4G and 5G standards. All lawsuits are currently still being served therefore detailed information is not available. It is likely that more suits will follow.

Taliens and Vossius for ZTE

As JUVE Patent has learned, ZTE is relying on Taliens and Vossius & Partner for the lawsuits in Munich. Both law firms have a long-standing relationship with ZTE and have conducted lawsuits for the company in Germany in the past. They are each responsible for a UPC lawsuit. It is also likely that they will split the actions at the Munich Regional Court.

The Vossius team currently consists of Georg Rauh, Andreas Kramer, Zhuomin Wu, Philipp Widera and Roman Scheibe as well as patent attorney Christin Sandweg. As in other UPC proceedings, the Vossius lawyers are operating under the joint brand Vossius & Brinkhof UPC litigators. However, the team does not currently include Brinkhof lawyers.

In addition to founding partner Thomas Lynker, the Taliens team also includes partner Christian Werner and associate Evelyn Höfer. Juliane Buchinski, who coordinates ZTE’s in-house litigation in Europe, is reportedly also involved.

Kirkland and Powell Gilbert run UK case

Yesterday, JUVE Patent learned that ZTE is relying on the London law firm Powell Gilbert to defend the lawsuit in the UK. Partner Ari Laakoonen is in the lead here. ZTE has also worked with Bristows in the past.

Samsung filed the lawsuit with Kirkland & Ellis. However, the law firm did not comment on which of its lawyers are involved. The US patent team has good connections to Samsung. The London team has advised the Korean company in connection with other mobile phone licences in the past.

A Kirkland & Ellis team led by Nicola Dagg is also representing Lenovo in a similar FRAND-rate determination claim at the UK High Court (case ID: HP-2024-000038). The team has very good ties to Chinese handset makers such as Lenovo and Xiaomi. Bird & Bird partner Richard Vary represents ZTE in the case with Lenovo.

It is currently not known which law firms will represent Samsung in Germany. In the past, the company has often worked with the Düsseldorf IP boutique Rospatt, Hoyng ROKH Monegier or A&O Shearman. The latter has already acted for Samsung in two UPC proceedings, against Headwater Research over mobile communications and against Network Systems Technologies over semiconductors respectively.

Hoyng ROKH Monegier is conducting different proceedings against Headwater Research. Most recently, Rospatt represented Samsung in national proceedings. The Munich patent attorney firm Zimmerman & Partner usually represents the company in the German proceedings.