On June 25, 2025, the UK High Court ruled on Samsung's application for interim relief regarding ZTE's temporary license declaration, finding that ZTE had breached its obligation to negotiate in good faith under the FRAND terms of the standard essential patent license agreement with Samsung, and granted Samsung a temporary license.

The ruling between Samsung and ZTE marks the first time the UK High Court has granted interim injunctive relief at the first instance stage. Previous interim injunction decisions, such as those involving Panasonic and Xiaomi or Lenovo and Ericsson, were only approved at the appellate court stage. (Case Number: HP-2024-000044)

Samsung sought three interim injunctions in court: First, ZTE Communications breached its good faith obligations under the ETSI; Second, ZTE and Samsung have reached a provisional license agreement regarding each other's standard-essential patents (SEPs), with appropriate royalty terms to be determined by the UK High Court and subject to adjustment and modification following the court's final determination of global FRAND terms (or as otherwise agreed by the parties); Third, if ZTE refuses to grant Samsung such provisional licenses, ZTE constitutes an unwilling licensor (and, given the cross-licensing arrangement, ZTE is also an unwilling licensee).

ZTE has filed a counterclaim, asserting that it has already provided a temporary licensing proposal, while arguing that all anticipated and retrospective adjustments to the temporary licensing terms, including royalty rates, must align with the terms determined in the FRAND terms final adjudication action initiated by ZTE in Chongqing (unless otherwise agreed upon by both parties in advance).

The court's ruling stated that the UK High Court has jurisdiction over this case because the court has lawfully accepted the case and ZTE has withdrawn its objection to jurisdiction, thereby accepting the court's jurisdiction over Samsung's lawsuit.

Judge Mellor found that ZTE “acted in bad faith” and stated that “a willing licensor would not initiate a series of injunction proceedings.” Additionally, the judge noted that there is no evidence to suggest that Samsung is not operating as a willing licensee and licensor.

Samsung has filed lawsuits against ZTE regarding its standard-essential patents in the UK, Germany, the US, and the Unified Patent Court (UPC), while ZTE has filed patent lawsuits against Samsung in China, Germany, the UPC, and Brazil. However, both parties have only sought global FRAND rulings in the UK High Court and the Chongqing Court.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)