Xiaomi takes down another Nera Innovations patent; after Federal Patent Court decision, Munich I Regional Court proceedings to remain on hold

• Xiaomi concludes many patent license agreements without litigation, such as the recent renewal with InterDigital (January 7, 2026 ip fray article).
• But in some cases, Xiaomi demonstrates defensive prowess. Nera Innovations, a private equity-backed non-practicing entity (NPE), has not made the slightest headway against Xiaomi with three infringement lawsuits involving patents acquired from LG Electronics and Giesecke & Devrient:
  • EP2642632 (“Wireless power receiver and method of manufacturing the same”) was revoked by the Unified Patent Court’s (UPC) Hamburg Local Division (LD) (July 10, 2025 ip fray article).
  • The Landgericht Düsseldorf (Dusseldorf Regional Court) doubted the validity of  EP2946706 (“Mobile terminal”) so much that it stayed the proceedings.
  • A third case, before the Landgericht München I (Munich I Regional Court), was stayed after a negative non-binding preliminary opinion (NBPO) on EP2916418 (“Wireless charging and communication board and wireless charging and communication device”) by the Bundespatentgericht (Federal Patent Court of Germany).

What’s new: Yesterday, the Federal Patent Court held its nullity trial on the patent just mentioned (EP2916418). Xiaomi was challenging the only claims relevant to the infringement proceedings (1, 2, and 7). Those claims were deemed invalid as granted, and Nera’s auxiliary requests led nowhere.

Direct impact: On this basis, the Munich I Regional Court is highly unlikely to hold a trial unless and until the patent is revived by the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice) on appeal. Theoretically, Nera could argue that it will win the appeal and that the patent won’t be deleted from the register unless the appeal fails, but the Federal Patent Court ruling bears too much weight.

Wider ramifications: All in all, the outlook for Nera against Xiaomi is bleak. The UPC has assigned its appeal of the Hamburg LD decision to the newly formed Panel 3 of the Court of Appeal (CoA), but no hearing date has been scheduled yet. The nearest-term opportunity for Nera to turn this around is the nullity hearing on the patent over which the Dusseldorf court stayed the infringement proceedings. That hearing will take place on June 9, 2026.