BREAKING: ZTE prevails on FRAND in parallel offensive, defensive cases in landmark German decisions against Samsung

Context: In a long-running patent infringement dispute between ZTE and Samsung, the pendulum has so far swung very much in ZTE’s favor. Last month, the Munich I Regional Court denied Samsung an injunction for failure to overcome ZTE’s FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory licensing) defense (March 26, 2026 ip fray article), while its own FRAND defense failed to convince a Brazilian appeals court, which declined to give Samsung “a free pass to infringe” (February 4, 2026 ip fray article). The Munich I Regional Court held a trial earlier this year (February 14, 2026 ip fray article) and scheduled the decision for April 15, 2026. The case was stayed pending parallel validity proceedings. In the most recent turn of events, the Unified Patent Court’s (UPC’s) Mannheim Local Division yesterday handed down its decision in the dispute, throwing out Samsung’s FRAND counterclaim against ZTE as a duplication of the German proceedings (April 29, 2026 ip fray article).

What’s new:

• The Munich I Regional Court’s 7th Civil Chamber today handed ZTE another key win in its long-running dispute against Samsung, granting it a German injunction. This is the winning patent: EP2654356 (“Method and device for determining channel quality indication information”). The decision came down as a bench ruling at the end of a full-day trial in Munich, including expert testimony on FRAND.
• The Munich I Regional Court has also thrown out Samsung’s own SEP countersuit over its EP3625887 (“Method and apparatus of rate-matching for communication and broadcasting systems”) over FRAND. 

Direct impact: ZTE has become the first company to prevail on FRAND in an offensive and a defensive case on the same day in any German (perhaps even worldwide) court in history.