Context: The FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing; or just RAND in this case, the omission of the F having no effect) dispute between Amazon and InterDigital over video patents has let to major cross-jurisdictional entanglements:
- Last month, Mr Justice Richard Meade of the High Court of Justice for England & Wales (EWHC) expressed a great deal of skepticism when hearing InterDigital’s jurisdictional challenge (with fallback positions involving forum non conveniens and a case management stay) to Amazon’s UK case (December 4, 2025 ip fray article).
- The UK antisuit injunction (ASI), styled as an anti-antisuit injunction (AASI), in Amazon’s favor was affirmed after a hearing (December 11, 2025 ip fray article). InterDigital’s jurisdictional challenge was dismissed (January 6, 2026 ip fray article), with the UK court critically relying on competition law even though a global compulsory license would be a disproportionate remedy to a violation of UK antitrust rules and irreconcilable with comity.
- So were the Unified Patent Court’s (UPC) (December 25, 2025 ip fray article) and Landgericht MĂŒnchen I’s (Munich I Regional Court; December 1, 2025 ip fray article) anti-interim-license injunctions (AILIs), which must be interpreted as general anti-antisuit injunctions against foreign interference with property rights.
- The President of the Unified Patent Court’s Court of Appeal (CoA), in his capacity as Standing Judge, denied Amazon’s motion to stay the enforcement of the Mannheim AILI (January 5, 2026 ip fray article). Amazon’s theories of manifest error and irreparable harm were rejected.
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Court and counsel
UPC
For the UPC CoA, the decision was entered by President Dr. Klaus Grabinski in his capacity as Standing Judge.
First-instance (Mannheim LD) panel: Presiding Judge (and here, judge-rapporteur) Professor Peter Tochtermann, Judge Dirk Boettcher (âBlttcherâ in German), and Judge AndrĂĄs Kupecz (CD Munich).
Munich Higher Regional Court (appeals court)
The appeal has been assigned (as expected) to the 6th Civil Senate under Presiding Judge Lars Meinhardt.
Munich I Regional Court (first instance)
The AILI decision was made by Presiding Judge Dr. Georg Werner, who was due to be sworn in this week as a new judge of the UPC’s Munich LD (October 10, 2025 ip fray article), Judge Dr. Sebastian Benz, and Judge Julia Obermeier.
Counsel (UPC and Munich)
Counsel for InterDigital at the Mannheim hearing: Arnold Ruessâs Cordula Schumacher, Dr. Lisa Rieth, Tim Smentkowski, and Julija Kravtsova, as well as Dr. Marina Wehler by video. The ex parte AILI and its post-hearing affirmance by the Mannheim LD were UPC and SEP achievements for Arnold Ruess. From the UK, Bird & Birdâs Mark Livsey attended the hearing in person. U.S. attorney Richard Kamprath of McKool Smith was also among the remote attendees of the November 14, 2025 Mannheim LD hearing. In-house litigation counsel Steven Akerley attended in person, and several other InterDigital lawyers and executives followed the video stream.
Counsel for Amazon:
- In person at the Mannheim LD hearing: Hoyng Rokh Monegierâs Klaus Haft, Sven Krause, Roeland Grijpink, Dr. LĂ©on Dijkman, Moritz Lohr, Dr. Nico Schur, and Antonia Wilhelm; as well as (from the UK) Hogan Lovellsâs Paul Brown.
- By video: Hoyng Rokh Monegierâs Kay Kasper; Hogan Lovells UKâs Will Buswell and Ian Moss; Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hamptonâs Martin Bader and Stephen Korniczky; and Amazon VP IP Scott Hayden and Associate General Counsel IP Marc Ascolese.