Auto LNG plans dropped; further FRAND guidance from Munich; Dolby acquires video SEPs; Brazil court okays pool offer; plus much more
Welcome to the latest edition of the Sisvel Insights weekly round-up, aggregating news stories, analyses and data points affecting the SEP world that have caught our eye over the past seven days.
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Licensing negotiation groups have been a flashpoint in SEP policy debates since a European Commission expert group championed the idea in 2021. It has now been revealed that the highest-profile effort to put an LNG into practice has been abandoned.
IAM reported last week that the automotive LNG once backed by BMW, Mercedes, Thyssenkrupp and Volkswagen is no longer being pursued. Participants say that it never advanced beyond discussions or became operational.
Although the plans won conditional approval from Germany’s Federal Cartel Office in 2024 and the European Commission in 2025, a US antitrust probe was reported earlier this year after a key Department of Justice official publicly likened the LNG to an illegal buyers’ cartel. This lack of regulatory consensus would have created serious questions over the mechanism’s ability to resolve global disputes efficiently.
Elsewhere, a key court in Germany has further pulled back the curtain on how it assesses FRAND disputes. The 7th Civil Chamber of the Munich Regional Court, which has handled several major SEP cases under Presiding Judge Dr Oliver Schön, put out a FRAND document last week building on the 16-page guidelines in published last year. It is sure to be studied closely in all corners of the market.
There was also news that Dolby has made a major play for video patents, picking up hundreds of rights declared essential to the VVC standard; and a Brazilian court opined that NEC had met its FRAND obligation by making a pool offer, even in the absence of an accompanying bilateral offer.
Please note that the inclusion of a piece in the list below does not signify agreement with what is stated in the linked article – just that we believe it is of interest and worth flagging.
Market
Plans for an automotive licensing negotiation group have been abandoned, with onetime proponents BMW and Volkswagen stating that it never progressed beyond the discussion stage. Read more (IAM)🔒
Dolby has picked up hundreds of VVC SEPs in a deal with Florida Atlantic University and video compression technology developer OP Solutions. Read more (ip fray)
Twelve Sisvel executives have been included in the IAM 300, thanks to recognition from market peers as world-leading IP strategists. Read more (Sisvel LinkedIn)
Legal
The 7th Chamber of the Munich Regional Court has issued new FRAND guidelines which include a case study of the Avanci 5G Vehicle programme. Read more (ip fray)
A Brazilian court has held that a pool licence offer may satisfy a SEP owner’s FRAND obligation even where no bilateral offer has been made. Read more (ip fray)🔒
The EPO Board of Appeal has revoked a Wi-Fi related patent owned by licensing firm Atlas Global Technologies. Read more (JUVE Patent)
An ITC judge has opened the door to a potential import ban with a finding that ASUS infringed a Wi-Fi patent owned by licensing firm Estelgia LLC. Read more (Law360)🔒
Policy & Opinion
The US statute covering patent eligibility is difficult to apply and should be reconsidered by Congress in anticipation of major disputes over AI-related patents, outgoing federal judge Alan Albright has said. Read more (IAM)🔒
Strategy & Analysis
There is a short window for SEP owners to engage with a pool administrator and evaluate whether they have assets reading on the AV2 specification. Read more (MARU IP Law)
Consultancy Tech+IP Advisors has published a report on the codec and streaming patent wars tracking more than 100 litigation events involving 78 entities in the first half of 2026 alone. Read more (Tech+IP Advisors)
A round-up of recent litigation related to video streaming underlines the growing licensing activity in the space. Read more (IAM) 🔒
Technologies related to neural video coding could play an important role in future standards and become key SEP battlegrounds. Read more (MLex)
A basket of listed companies that rely on IP licensing has underperformed the broader tech sector in recent years as markets continue to discount ‘lumpy’ revenue streams. Read more (Jim Harlan on LinkedIn)
