New SEP lawsuits filed against Xiaomi over ASUSTeK patents in Munich

Context: For some time, ASUSTeK was only seen as a defendant to standard-essential patent (SEP) infringement lawsuits. It presently is on the receiving end of SEP enforcement actions by Ericsson (October 15, 2024 ip fray article). But it also has an outbound licensing program and sometimes files infringement lawsuits, such as against Samsung (September 15, 2023 DigiTimes article). ASUSTeK is also working with non-practicing entities (NPEs) for this purpose. Samsung also got sued by Celerity IP over former ASUSTeK patents, and both disputes settled simultaneously. Lenovo has been sued over former ASUSTeK patents by Innovative Sonic Solutions (July 25, 2024 ip fray article). Celerity IP and Innovative Sonic both sued LG Electronics in the Eastern District of Texas (March 12, 2024 Monday news item).

What’s new: Sources have confirmed to ip fray that ASUSTeK, directly and/or indirectly, is suing Xiaomi in the Munich I Regional Court. The same sources are not aware of cases in other jurisdictions at this stage.

Direct impact & wider ramifications: Most SEP license agreements are reached without litigation. When Xiaomi gets sued, it usually doesn’t litigate for years, but it does defend itself. Against Panasonic, it obtained the first ever court ruling declaring an implementer entitled to an interim patent license (October 3, 2024 ip fray article), which paved the way to a settlement. In the Unified Patent Court (UPC), Xiaomi is presently being sued over former ZTE patents by Advanced Standards Communications (November 28, 2024 ip fray article). No UPC action by ASUSTeK or its licensing partners against Xiaomi is known at this stage.

Xiaomi is obviously a far larger and more lucrative target for ASUSTeK and its patent monetization partners than Lenovo.

In a Lenovo v. ASUSTeK case (a countersuit by Lenovo), the UPC’s Munich Local Division has recently scheduled an interim conference for September 25, 2025 (PDF (in German)).

Xiaomi’s IP business is now headed by Na Wei after Ran Xu moved to a different division with general business responsibilities.

The Munich I Regional Court is a rocket docket for patent cases, particularly SEP disputes. We will try to obtain more specific information (case and patent numbers).