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Court and counsel
Lord Briggs is the UKSC’s Mr. FRAND
Two of the UKSC judges who granted Apple’s petition to appeal the EWCA’s Optis ruling also granted the petition in Tesla v. InterDigital & Avanci (July 2, 2025 ip fray article): Lord Briggs and Lord Burrows. Tesla’s appeal, which concerns FRAND jurisdiction over a pool rate and could have further-reaching implications for the SEP ecosystem (as it poses a fundamental threat to patent pools) than Apple’s, will be heard in April 2026. Apple’s appellate hearing will take place in 2027 unless it is formally or effectively expedited.
Lord Briggs was also one of the most active ones of the five judges who heard Unwired Planet v. Huawei in 2019. Lord Burrows was not involved at the time.
Lord Briggs and Lord Burrows made the decision to grant Apple’s petition together with Lord Stephens.
Author of decision under appeal
The decisions at issue in the Unwired and Optis cases were both authored by the same judge: Lord Justice Colin Birss wrote the Optis v. Apple appellate opinion, and while he was sitting on the lower court, he decided Unwired Planet v. Huawei in the first instance (the EWCA affirmed and from there it went to the UKSC).
Counsel for Optis
Unwired Planet and Optis Wireless have the same parent company: PanOptis. Unwired was and Optis is being represented by Adrian Speck KC, instructed (on both occasions) by EIP and OsborneClarke. In the Optis case, Mr. Speck works together with James Abrahams KC, Josephine Davies KC, Isabel Jamal and Thomas Jones.
Counsel for Apple
There is no overlap with respect to the implementers’ lawyers, at least for now. On Apple’s behalf, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP instructed Jon Turner KC, Hugh Mercer KC, Michael Bloch KC, Brian Nicholson KC, Sarah Love and Ligia Osepciu. Huawei used different barristers and solicitors.