According to a May 22 press release (http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20140522-903952.html) , InterDigital has settled antimonopoly charges with the National Development and Reform Commission of China.

InterDigital’s commitments regarding licensing of its patent portfolio for wireless mobile standards to Chinese manufacturers of cellular terminal units (“Chinese Manufacturers”) are as follows:

1. Whenever InterDigital engages with a Chinese Manufacturer to license InterDigital’s patent portfolio for 2G, 3G and 4G wireless mobile standards, InterDigital will offer such Chinese Manufacturer the option of taking a worldwide portfolio license of only its standards-essential wireless patents, and comply with F/RAND principles when negotiating and entering into such licensing agreements with Chinese Manufacturers.

2. As part of its licensing offer, InterDigital will not require that a Chinese Manufacturer agree to a royalty-free, reciprocal cross-license of such Chinese Manufacturer’s similarly categorized standards-essential wireless patents.

3. Prior to commencing any action against a Chinese Manufacturer in which InterDigital may seek exclusionary or injunctive relief for the infringement of any of its wireless standards-essential patents, InterDigital will offer such Chinese Manufacturer the option to enter into expedited binding arbitration under fair and reasonable procedures to resolve the royalty rate and other terms of a worldwide license under InterDigital’s wireless standards-essential patents. If the Chinese Manufacturer accepts InterDigital’s binding arbitration offer or otherwise enters into an agreement with InterDigital on a binding arbitration mechanism, InterDigital will, in accordance with the terms of the arbitration agreement and patent license agreement, refrain from seeking exclusionary or injunctive relief against such company.

A quick read of these commitments suggests that item 1 is a re-commitment by InterDigital to F/RAND licensing of its SEP’s,  Item 2 reflects Chinese antipathy to mandatory grantbacks of technology in a technology transfer agreement, including imposing non-essential requirements on the technology transfer agreement under the Contract Law and related Judicial Interpretation and  Item 3 reflects the interest in many parties in seeking mandatory arbitration to resolve increasingly complex F/RAND SEP disputes, including questions concerning the availability of injunctive relief in light of F/RAND licensing commitments. 

My personal observation: the news release does not indicate under what circumstances a Chinese licensee would have lost the right to an arbitration by reason of a lack of good faith in negotiating licensing terms and thereby does little to incentivize licensors entering into negotiations at an early stage after a standard has been determined.  However, it does appear to offer the possibility of expedited arbitration for licensor and licensee in lieu of the licensor’s seeking injunctive relief, thereby potentially mitigating losses of a licensor due to unreasonable delay.