18 December 2013, Shenzhen, China – ZTE Corporation and its subsidiary in Germany will appeal a decision by the District Court of Mannheim, Germany this week as the Group continues to defend a patent-related action initiated by Vringo Germany GmbH.
The ruling by Mannheim district court concerned the German part of the European Patent EP 1 186 119, owned by Vringo Infrastructure Inc., and a minor and optional function included in certain ZTE products. This week’s decision does not affect ZTE’s ability to offer products without the optional function. As the optional function is not in use in Germany, ZTE customers and consumers will not be affected by the ruling.
ZTE will appeal the Mannheim district court ruling in a higher court in Germany, and is optimistic of an outcome in favor of the Group.
In parallel, ZTE Deutschland GmbH previously filed a nullity action on the German part of EP 1 186 119 which is still pending at the German Federal Patent Court in Munich.
As a global provider of telecommunications equipment, ZTE owns more than 50,000 patents as the Group is committed to offering the highest-quality products and services to customers round the world. ZTE fully respects the intellectual property of other companies, and is committed to completing licensing agreements with patent holders on the FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) principle. ZTE steadfastly opposes the anti-competitive use of patents by holders as a tactic for unreasonable demands.
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