German and UPC rulings in Amazon case put pressure on UK proceedings

The parties are embroiled in a pan-European patent battle over video coding and decoding technology.

Earlier this month, the UPC and the Munich Regional Court both issued decisions prohibiting Amazon from seeking an interim licence at the UK High Court. Recently, implementers have increasingly applied to UK courts for such interim licences, for instance in the dispute between Samsung and ZTE. According to the UK courts, these decisions extended beyond the UK to UPC territory.

The UPC and Munich Regional Court made their decisions ex parte so defendants could not pre-empt them with UK applications.

These decisions could now impact the further course of proceedings in the parallel action in the UK and potentially accelerate them. Amazon launched the UK action in August this year, challenging the validity of InterDigital streaming patents and their essentiality. The plaintfiff sought declarations of non-infringement, alleging that InterDigital had abused a dominant position. Amazon also sought certain declarations concerning InterDigital’s obligations under the ITU-T FRAND commitment (called RAND).

Subsequently, InterDigital mounted a jurisdictional challenge in the UK and, fearing an interim licence by the High Court, filed anti-suit injunctions at the UPC and the Munich Regional Court.

Hearing moved forward

Blocked by the ASIs from applying for an interim licence, Amazon then requested the UK court move forward the hearing on jurisdiction. The court originally planned to hear the case by the end of January. Amazon also applied to expedite the RAND main trial.

In a recent case management hearing on 6 October, High Court judge Richard Meade declined to deal with the question of the RAND trial expedition. He scheduled an additional hearing for the end of October in which he will hear the jurisdictional challenge and the RAND obligations (case ID: HP-2025-000043).

In his comments, Meade clearly criticised InterDigital’s approach in the proceedings at the UPC and the Regional Court Munich. Meade’s concerns were not with how both continental courts proceeded, but rather “with InterDigital’s approach and the way it has depicted the UK courts’ practice”. In particular, he said the information on the timeline of issuing an interim licence in the UK was “obviously incorrect and unmaintainable”. In other cases, these had often taken weeks or months, which contradicted the urgency with which InterDigital had argued at the UPC and the Regional Court Munich.

Judge Meade stated there would be another hearing between 22 October and 30 October, depending on judge availability. The hearing will cover Amazon’s application to accelerate the FRAND trial and bring forward the jurisdictional challenge.

Amazon with Hogan Lovells

In the UK proceedings, Amazon works with a Hogan Lovells team led by Paul Brown. They are cooperating with barrister Andrew Lykiardopoulos KC of 8 New Square. As JUVE Patent recently learned, Klaus Haft of Hoyng ROKH Monegier took over the representation of Amazon at the UPC. JUVE Patent does not yet know who represents Amazon at the Regional Court Munich. In the past, a German team of Hogan Lovells represented the client in the dispute against Nokia.

In the UK proceedings, InterDigital relies on a team from Bird & Bird, led by Richard Vary. Michael Bloch of Blackstone Chambers and Jennifer Dixon of 8 New Square acted as barristers. In the proceedings in Germany and at the UPC, InterDigital retained its regular advisors from Arnold Ruess who worked together with patent attorney firm df-mp.