Context:
- Sisvel launched a Wi-Fi Multimode patent pool in January, which offers access to standard essential patents (SEPs) owned by 10 different Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7 technology owners, including Huawei, Panasonic, Philips, ZTE, KPN, Mitsubishi Electric, Orange, Aegis 11 SA (a Sisvel affiliate), SK Telecom, and Wilus (January 22, 2026 Sisvel press release). The program succeeds Sisvel’s Wi-Fi 6 patent pool and chiefly targets consumer electronics companies.
- Wilus, a small South Korean research firm that has made numerous contributions to standards, launched a global wireless SEP enforcement campaign against ASUS last year. As well as filing complaints in the Oberlandesgericht München I (Munich Higher Regional Court) and the Unified Patent Court’s (UPC’s) Mannheim Local Division (LD), it targeted ASUS’s subsidiary Askey in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. In January, the Munich I Regional Court granted Wilus a Germany-wide injunction against ASUS (January 30, 2026 ip fray article). Meanwhile, in the U.S. Askey case, Wilus sought a permanent injunction (which, if granted, would have been the first U.S. SEP injunction in almost 20 years), relaying its concerns over how Askey’s hold-out may influence the (un)willingness of other implementers to take a license (February 19, 2026 ip fray article). But Judge Rodney Gilstrap of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas then cancelled the pretrial conference for that injunction in April, indicating that this motion was now unlikely to be granted (April 30, 2026 ip fray article).
What’s new: ASUS has agreed to take a license to the SEPs in the Sisvel Wi-Fi Multimode pool, the program administrator announced today. UPC records also reveal that the court yesterday stayed the Mannheim LD case in accordance with the parties’ joint requests.
Direct impact: This deal resolves all pending litigation between ASUS and Wilus (in Germany, the UPC, and the U.S.), as well as fellow Wi-Fi Multimode pool licensors Huawei and Philips – the details of which have not been made public. However, the Munich I Regional Court’s 7th Civil Chamber was scheduled to hear the Philips v. ASUS case on Thursday (May 21, 2026). The possibility of a Munich bench ruling may have contributed to the settlement.
Wider ramifications: ASUS joins Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Huawei, Panasonic, Philips, Sony Group Corporation, and ZTE as a licensee of Sisvel’s Wi-Fi Multimode program, which has gained significant momentum since launching in January (April 8, 2026 ip fray article). Its successor, the Sisvel Wi-Fi 6 patent pool, closed agreements with 40 companies, including Acer, Netgear, Cisco, and HP (November 18, 2025 ip fray article), over a three-year period.
In a statement today, Sisvel’s Chief IP Officer Heath Hoglund said the Wi-Fi Multimode pool is developing “serious momentum” in the Wi-Fi market:
“The program’s expanding list of licensors and licensees bears testament to its compelling and unique value proposition. These are exciting times, and they look set to get even more exciting, so watch for more to come!”
Meanwhile, Wilus CEO Dr. Jin Sam Kwak said his company is “pleased” that its litigation with ASUS has ended in a pool license, thanking the Sisvel team and his outside counsel Bird & Bird and Ampersand. He added:
“Litigation is never our preferred path. It is always particularly hard for an independent R&D company like Wilus. As more leading companies recognize the value of our Wi-Fi innovations, we remain committed to licensing our SEP portfolio to the industry on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.”
Sisvel program manager Giorgia Varvelli also stated today that the company is “pleased” to welcome ASUS as a licensee of the Wi-Fi Multimode program and “delighted” that the pool solution has again shown itself to be an effective way to solve Wi-Fi-related patent disputes.
This news also comes a week after ASUS lost a major case in the UK against Nokia (May 12, 2026 ip fray article). At the end of last year, the High Court of Justice for England and Wales (EWHC) had issued an interim-license decision in favor of ASUS (and Acer) (December 18, 2025 ip fray article), but the Court of Appeal of England and Wales (EWCA) then permanently stayed those proceedings, after finding that Nokia had complied with its (F)RAND1 (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) licensing obligations by offering adjustable (through arbitration) licenses.
And, in a major dispute between ASUS and Ericsson spanning several jurisdictions, ASUS also lost a case in the UPC’s Lisbon LD, which ruled that ASUS is liable for damages for approximately six years preceding the expiration of the patent-in-suit (May 6, 2026 ip fray article).