Access Advance offers support to Sisvel licensor Wilus in Askey injunction dispute

Context:

South Korean research and licensing company Wilus is suing Askey, a subsidiary of Taiwanese tech company ASUS that makes routers and related equipment, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas for infringement of Wi-Fi standard-essential patents (SEPs). 

• Askey has effectively admitted to infringing several Wilus SEPs, but has not agreed to reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) licensing terms.  
• In light of this, Wilus filed a motion seeking a permanent injunction (February 19, 2026 ip fray article). Given that it has been widely considered all but impossible for a SEP holder to obtain an injunction in the U.S. for the past two decades, Wilus’s motion came as a surprising—and potentially highly significant—development.
• Wilus is a licensor in Sisvel’s Wi-Fi 6 patent pool. Sisvel also acts as Wilus’s licensing agent with regards to prospective bilateral deals. Askey would likely be able to settle the dispute by taking a pool license from Sisvel.

What’s new: Access Advance, another SEP pool operator, is seeking to submit an amicus curiae brief in support of Wilus’s request for an injunction against Askey.

• Access Advance argues that “patent holdout” by a “bad faith infringer” goes against the spirit of the patent system as envisioned in the U.S. Constitution and Patent Act; encourages “free riding” on others’ R&D investments and therefore discourages further such investment; and “distorts the patent licensing market”.
• It further suggests that damages alone do not provide adequate remedy for infringement and “holdout” in general.

Direct impact: Access Advance’s motion to submit an amicus brief will likely be granted, consistent with the liberal standards applied by U.S. courts. That said, the filing for the motion by itself has impact, not least in the sense of providing “moral support” for Wilus – and, by extension, its licensing partner and pool administrator Sisvel.

Wider ramifications:

• Unlike Sisvel, Access Advance does not itself license Wi-Fi relevant SEPs. It operates pools for video codec standards. Nevertheless, it—and other patent pool operators—would stand to benefit from a U.S. legal environment that is more willing to order injunctions against SEP infringements.
• Therefore, it would be game-changing if Wilus were to be successful in its bid for the first U.S. SEP injunction in two decades. That would make the U.S. a much more attractive venue for SEP enforcement, and would complement its already positive reputation when it comes to patent damages.