Context: Antitrust complaints over an alleged abuse of a dominant market position by standard-essential patent (SEP) holders are brought from time to time, though they typically go nowhere. A few months ago, HMD withdrew its EU antitrust complaint against VoiceAge EVS (May 5, 2025 ip fray article).
What’s new: An Indian source has informed us that the Supreme Court of India (SCI) today dismissed an appeal by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) against a July 13, 2023 decision by the Delhi High Court (HC) that quashed a CCI investigation against Ericsson further to complaints by local smartphone makers (Micromax, iBall, Intex etc.) alleging SEP abuse.
Direct impact: This decision puts a 12-year battle to rest. The CCI cannot resume any investigations that were quashed by the Delhi HC two years ago as the result of a successful appeal by Ericsson of the unfavorable part of a single-judge decision to the Delhi HC’s Division Bench, which was that (despite agreeing with Ericsson that the Patents Act of India is a specialized law that would prevail over general competition law) he allowed the investigations to continue. The related disputes between the private parties settled out a long time ago anyway, which was part of the reason why the Delhi HC’s Division Bench held that the CCI lacked jurisdiction over the matter.
Wider ramifications: SEP and other patent assertions under India’s Patents Act cannot be investigated by the CCI now. Even if (as a live report on the SCI announcement suggests) affirmance was based on the dispositiveness of settlements, the practical effect is that there will not be a window of opportunity for CCI investigations of patent holders as the Delhi HC is highly likely to quash any such investigations and the parties would settle before the SCI would make a decision in a future matter. As discussed below, there are, however, lobbying efforts underway, pushing for new laws to regulate SEP enforcement in India.
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Counsel
For Ericsson: Singh and Singh‘s Ashutosh Kumar, Saya Choudhary Kapur, Devanshu Khanna, Vinod Chauhan, Sajjan Shankar Prasad and Radhika Pareva. Advocate on Record: Abhishek Yadav. Senior Counsel who represented Ericsson were Mukul Rohatagi, C.S Vaidyanthan and Naveen Pahwa.
For the CCI: Mr. Venkataraman, Additional Solicitor General of India, Balbir Singh (Senior Advocate), Avinash Kumar Sharma, Samar Bansal and Damyanti Juneja.