Philips wins $6.9m SEP order against One Plus in India

One Plus must deposit ₹53.5 crores ($6.9 million) as interim security while its standard-essential patent dispute with Philips plays out in India, the Delhi High Court has ruled.

Justice Jyoti Singh passed the order on December 20 after she found that Philips had prima facie established the essentiality of 5 of its 3G and 4G SEPs and demonstrated infringement through claim chart mapping.

Philips had sought that One Plus deposit security of ₹71 crores ($8.5 million). The Netherlands-based company calculated this amount based on royalties payable at $1 per unit.

But the court reduced that amount by one-fourth as two of the five patents alleged to have been infringed had expired.

Singh noted that One Plus launched its products in India without “clearing the way” despite Philips making licensing offers and attempting to negotiate.

Also, One Plus merely submitted that it didn’t know which technology resides in its devices rather than expressly denying Philips’ claim that it used the Dutch company’s technology.

One Plus argued that the court must look into all the ingredients required to grant an interim injunction while passing an interim security order.

However, the court dismissed that contention noting that a division (appellate) bench at the same court ruled in Nokia v Oppo that these are different reliefs and can’t be “likened” to each other.

Over the past year, the Delhi High Court has leaned more towards protecting SEP owners’ interests by granting interim security orders during the pendency of litigation.

Last year, the court issued similar relief to Nokia against Oppo and to Atlas Global against TP Link. In both cases, however, the security deposit amount was kept confidential.

The trend follows the court’s admission in multiple rulings that Indian courts can't be expected to expeditiously dispose of patent cases because of a shortage of judges.