Indian court hearing reveals HMD offers only 1.5% of what Dolby is seeking: $15K instead of $1M deposit for standard-essential patent royalties

Context: The terms of standard-essential patent (SEP) license deals rarely become known, but it is even harder to find out about implementers’ counteroffers. For example, all that is known about the ongoing dispute between ZTE and Samsung is that the two have litigation pending in multiple jurisdictions (March 12, 2025 ip fray article), but the terms of their respective offers are unknown.

What’s new: This morning, the Delhi High Court (HC) held a hearing in a Dolby v. HMD litigation over H.264 video codec patents that implementers commonly license through pool administrator Via LA. Counsel for Dolby told Ms. Justice Jyoti Singh that negotiations had been going for two and a half years, and now they were seeking a $1 million deposit for the purposes of the Indian part of the dispute, but complained loudly that HMD offered only 1.5% of that amount: $15K. HMD argued that the amount was commensurate with the age of the relevant portfolio.

Direct impact: Indian patent litigation takes a long time to resolve, so there is no reason to assume that an injunction will come down in the very near term.

Wider ramifications: HMD is a frequent defendant to SEP enforcement actions. Also for today, an appeals court in Germany scheduled a decision in a VoiceAge EVS v. HMD case (February 20, 2025 ip fray article). Counsel for VoiceAge EVS said at a hearing last fall that litigation costs already far exceeded the amount of royalties at stake (October 31, 2024 ip fray article). HMD is also being sued by Huawei, a company that is a major implementer itself and actually has a reputation for rather moderate royalty demands.