1. Philips v. Belkin dispute made (and now is) history; unclear if bilateral or (more likely) pool license was taken
Philips v. Belkin is a dispute that started in national court and escalated in the Unified Patent Court (UPC), where three notable firsts happened:
- the UPC’s first-ever standard-essential patent (SEP) injunction (September 13, 2024 ip fray article), albeit without a FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory licensing) defense;
- the UPC’s first SEP injunction to be affirmed on appeal (October 3, 2025 ip fray article); and
- the UPC’s first-ever bench ruling after a full merits trial (February 12, 2026 ip fray article), which was simultaneously the UPC’s first-ever SEP bench ruling.
Today the UPC’s Munich Local Division (LD) closed case UPC_CFI_62/2023. All pending cases between the parties have been withdrawn.
It is unclear whether Belkin took a bilateral license or a pool license. For now, Belkin’s name does not appear on the list of licensees of Via Licensing Alliance’s Qi Wireless Power pool. But commercially it would make a whole lot of sense for Belkin to have taken the pool license.
Counsel for Philips
- Bardehle Pagenberg’s Dr. Tilman Mueller, Dr. Tobias Wuttke, Nobuchika Mamine, and Dr. Ronja Schregle;
- Eisenfuehr Speiser’s Dr. Désirée Heintz and Dr. Christoph Fehn; and
- Philips in-house counsel Arie Tol and Edwin Montie.
2. Broadcom and Renault settle
We reported last month that Renault had lost a key battle in the Munich Higher Regional Court (April 23, 2026 ip fray article) as an Ethernet SEP injunction granted by the Munich I Regional Court was not stayed. Such stays are rare, but Deutsche Telekom achieved one yesterday (May 13, 2026 ip fray article).
Further to motions that both parties filed yesterday, the UPC’s Hamburg LD and Munich LD today closed Broadcom v. Renault cases. The only plausible explanation is a comprehensive settlement of the entire dispute. Broadcom won.
Broadcom has also just settled with Nissan (May 8, 2026 ip fray article). In a case against Hyundai (February 24, 2026 ip fray article), the Munich LD has scheduled the oral hearing for April 15, 2027.
Counsel for Broadcom
Broadcom was represented by CBH’s Hannes Jacobsen.