Game changer” Pantech-Google FRAND ruling could open up Japan’s SEP enforcement landscape

​​Context: Japanese courts have long stayed out of standard-essential patent (SEP) enforcement discussions – notably since a 2014 Apple v. Samsung IP High Court Grand Panel decision affirmed that while an injunction may be permitted against an unwilling licensee, “a finding of unwillingness must be made with great caution”. This set the bar to prove unwillingness very high and meant any request for an injunction against an implementer was typically rejected as an abuse of rights. In a landmark decision last Monday, however, the Tokyo District Court issued Japan’s first-ever injunction in a FRAND-related case, ruling in favour of South Korea’s Pantech in its 4G LTE standard-essential patent (SEP) infringement suit against Google.

What’s new: Pantech has since filed a petition with Tokyo Customs to enforce the injunction and block Google Pixel 7 imports, paying a security deposit of 10 million Japanese yen ($67,500), which will be open for public comments until July 4, 2025. Google has until August 6, 2025 to file an appeal in the IP High Court.

Direct impact: This is no doubt a win for Pantech, as well as a huge deal for the SEP community, and for Japan’s role on the global SEP enforcement stage. The case could open more doors for such litigation in Japan, and it will be interesting to see what sort of approach the courts will take moving forward if so. As Sisvel’s Joff Wild, who broke the news last week, put it: “Should Japan become a viable enforcement option for SEP holders it would be something of a gamechanger.”

Wider ramifications: Toshifumi Futamata, Chairman, Japan SEP Study Group, also noted in a LinkedIn post last week that this comes shortly after another SEP ruling was handed down in Japan in a case initiated by Pantech. The two together, he wrote, “may mark the beginning of a new phase in Japan’s SEP enforcement landscape” (June 25, 2025 LinkedIn post by Toshifumi Futamata).

Pantech was previously one of South Korea’s three largest mobile handset makers (trailing behind Samsung and LG). But it exited the mobile phone manufacturing business in 2017, and, in 2020, transferred over 1,400 patents to IdeaHub, now the country’s largest private non-practising entity.

The patent-in-suit is:

JP6401224 (“Physical hybrid automatic repeat request indication channel mapping method”)
It covers a crucial method for mapping control signals – a process that determines how a cell tower sends acknowledgement messages to mobile phones, ensuring that data is received correctly in LTE networks.

Pantech reportedly asked the court to order Google to stop selling, transferring or importing its Pixel 7 smartphones after the company had attempted to make fair licensing proposals and provided detailed patent information. Google demanded a non-disclosure agreement at the outset, delayed negotiations, and failed to engage meaningfully, demonstrating behavior consistent with hold-out tactics, Pantech alleged.

As noted by Mr. Futamata in his LinkedIn post, the court had asked the two companies to settle, but Google made no efforts to do so, and “eliminated the possibility of negotiation”, making it an unwilling licensee.

Mr. Futamata wrote he hopes this case marks the beginning of a broader shift in Japan’s approach to SEP enforcement and has said he will urge the court to release the decision promptly. He hopes that Google’s request for non-disclosure will not be granted, he added.

Satoshi Watanabe of Sagacious IP told ip fray he also hopes this case will encourage more parties to consider Japanese courts as a fair and effective forum for resolving international IP disputes.