Licensing deal between Acer and Sisvel ends litigation

Acer is the latest implementer to take a licence from Sisvel's Wifi 6 patent pool. The licensing deal puts an end to all patent litigation between Acer and Sisvel's pool members.

In July 2022, non-practising entity Sisvel announced the launch of a new Wifi 6 patent pool, with Chinese telecommunication company Huawei and Dutch company Philips among the first to join. In the meantime, the patent pool has grown to eight members.

Wifi 6 was created in response to the demand for faster connectivity in an increasingly-interconnected world. Sisvel intended for the pool to cover this new generation of wifi technology to improve connectivity for users in densely-populated spaces.

Acer takes licence

The pool now has over 20 licensees including computer company Acer. It covers more than 200 patent families essential to the 802.11ax standard.

Giorgia Varvelli, programme manager for the Sisvel Wi-Fi 6 pool, says, “The patent owners in our Wi-Fi 6 programme … have chosen to participate in the pool because they share a belief in transparent, efficient licensing options that power innovation. The agreement with Acer, a major global vendor of Wi-Fi enabled products, as well as an experienced licensing market participant, is a strong validation of the Wi-Fi 6 patent pool’s value proposition.”

Deal ends litigation

Previously, Acer was locked in a patent dispute with Sisvel pool member Wilus. In 2023 Wilus sued Acer at the Munich Regional Court (case ID: 7 O 11487/23) for infringing its patent EP 3 512 289. The patent protects a “wireless communication method using enhanced distributed channel access, and wireless communication terminal using same”. When asked by JUVE Patent, Munich Regional Court said the case was suspended.

According to the Regional Court Munich, Sisvel pool member Philips had also launched actions against Acer at the court (case IDs: 7 O 5599/24 and 7 O 5639/24). These cases were also suspended.

However, now that Acer has taken a licence, all pending litigation will come to an end.

Focus on FRAND

Sisvel made the Wifi 6 portfolios available on FRAND terms, “by offering a royalty-bearing, non-transferable, non-assignable, non-exclusive licence, with no right to grant sublicences, under the participating patent owners’ patent portfolios essential to the 802.11ax specification.” The aim was to increase transparency of patent licensing and minimise licensing disputes.

According to the Sisvel website, the standard licensing rate is $0.60 per unit. However, this can fall to a $0.50 ‘compliant rate’ per unit for licensees that are “in full compliance with its obligations under its licence agreement.”