China’s Great Wall Motor and Skyworth sued in Brazilian SEP actions; all patents available through pools; PI against Geely imminent

Context:

• Brazil is, by now, one of the world’s most important standard-essential patent (SEP) jurisdictions. Earlier this month we reported on the following Brazilian SEP news:
  • Nokia is gaining ground against ASUS in Brazil with favorable expert report (March 12, 2026 ip fray article)
  • Brazil’s antitrust authority calls UK-made global FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing) determinations into question (March 7, 2026 ip fray article)
• Chinese automotive companies have previously been sued in Brazil:
  • BYD took an Avanci license when a Brazilian preliminary injunction (PI) was affirmed (September 25, 2025 ip fray article).
  • Geely, which has previously been sued by Nokia (July 22, 2025 ip fray article) and Sun Patent Trust (SPT) (December 10, 2025 ip fray article) in Europe, was hit with an IP Bridge complaint on March 9, 2026.
• Chinese electronics makers¹ have experienced the same:
  • Via licensors Dolby and IP Bridge sued Skyworth, which offers a wide range of products from smart TVs to air conditioning and emphasizes AIoT (Artificial Intelligence of Things) integration (February 1, 2026 ip fray article).
  • Hisense and TCL are being sued by InterDigital (February 10, 2026 ip fray article).

What’s new: There is a lot going on in Brazil right now. Note that the order of the items is arbitrary as all of them are similarly important.

1. SPT is suing China’s automaker Great Wall Motor (GWM), which is known for sport-utility vehicles (SUVs), pick-up trucks, and other trucks. This assertion of a 4G SEP involves a PI request and was just filed yesterday.
2. Also yesterday, Dolby filed a lawsuit against Skyworth, not its first against that company but (as far as we can see) the first-ever assertion of an AV1 patent in Brazil. AV1 (AOMedia Video 1) is promoted as a royalty-free standard by its Big Tech backers, but now routinely subject to patent royalty demands by parties that did not participate in the development of the standard and are, therefore, not bound by a FRAND pledge.
3. Any moment, a PI could come down against Geely as IP Bridge’s case is now being assessed by Judge Arthur Eduardo Magalhães Ferreira of the 5th Business Court of the Rio de Janeiro State Court.

Direct impact:

1. GWM is now the latest Chinese automaker to be sued over cellular SEPs. It could settle the dispute with SPT bilaterally or through an Avanci 4G Vehicle (web link) pool license.
2. To settle with Dolby, Skyworth needs a comprehensive bilateral license or two different pool licenses, which would then cover the portfolios of many other SEP holders. The case brought yesterday involves a patent available through Sisvel‘s AV1 pool (web link) while the previous one was Via-related (Advanced Video Coding (AVC, H.264)).
3. For Geely, the noose is tightening given that IP Bridge’s patent-in-suit is the one over which a PI against BYD was affirmed after further scrutiny by the court. Technically it is a new case, but it is unlikely that Geely implements the patented technique in any different way than BYD or that it has a stronger FRAND defense.

Wider ramifications: For SEP injunctions, there is now a trio of jurisdictions where most of the action is taking place:

• the Unified Patent Court (UPC),
• the Munich I Regional Court (which has three SEP trials on the list for this week, with all defendants happening to be Chinese:² LinkedIn post by ip fray), and
• Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro State Court.