NTT DoCoMo grants standard-essential patents to HTC

The Japanese wireless telecom leader, NTT DoCoMo Inc. (“DoCoMo”) announced on November 28, 2016 that they have entered into a patent licensing agreement for mobile communication technology with Taiwan-based HTC, according to which HTC will pay DoCoMo licensing fees for patent license.  With execution of this agreement between the two companies, DoCoMo drops all pending patent litigation between DoCoMo and HTC.  

The agreement signed between the two companies covers the W-CDMA, LTE, and LTE-Advanced standard-essential patents held and owned by DoCoMo.  A standard-essential patent refers to a patent that covers technology required to implement a technology standard or to make use of industry standards, and implementqation of such required technology without due licensing by the patent holder will inevitably cause patent infringement.  Now DoCoMo has granted standard-essential patent licenses to more than ten companies, while only three companies including HTC, LG, and Huawei have received patent licensing with DoCoMo's official announcement.  (November 2016)

/CCS