Realme secures second victory in German dispute over LTE technology
The parties are fighting over EP 2 068 582 in Germany. The patent protects “a handoff access method and device based on random access channel”. ZTE originally filed the patent before transferring it to NPE Ox Mobile Technologies, part of the Longhorn IP Group.
In its ruling today, the Federal Patent Court (case IDs: 4 Ni 13/23 and 4 Ni 16/23) declared the patent invalid on the grounds of lack of inventive step.
Realme’s win in the first-instance nullity action follows its success in German infringement proceedings. In April 2024, the Munich Regional Court dismissed Ox’s infringement suit against the Chinese technology company (case ID: 7 O 15318/22). The panel led by presiding judge Oliver Schön found that Realme’s products did not infringe the patent, which Ox claims is essential for the LTE standard.
Ox has appealed the ruling, which is pending at the Munich Higher Regional Court (case ID: 6 U 1686/24 Kart e).
With both first-instance rulings in its favour, Realme can continue marketing its products in Germany, for example smartphones.
In parallel proceedings, Ox has also sued Xiaomi for infringement of the same patent. Thus the Chinese mobile phone manufacturer launched a nullity suit, which the court has now ruled on together with the suit filed by Realme.
In the infringement proceedings, the Munich court also dismissed Ox’s claim (case ID: 7 O 11860/22). An appeal is pending (case ID: 6U 1685/24 Kart e).
Victory for Taylor Wessing
As in the infringement proceedings, Realme relied on Taylor Wessing. Partner Jan Phillip Rektorschek led the Munich team, which included partner Tobias Baus. It handled the nullity proceedings without patent attorney support, which is unusual for Federal Patent Court cases.
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- Jan Phillip Rektorschek
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- Christoph Walke
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- Ole Dirks
Patent attorneys and partners Christoph Walke and Peter Reckenthäler of Düsseldorf IP firm Cohausz & Florack represented Ox in the nullity suit. They worked with litigator Ole Dirks of IP boutique Wildanger Kehrwald Graf v. Schwerin. The law firm’s partner Peter-Michael Weise led the infringement action.
A team from patent attorney firm Maikowski & Ninnemann represented Xiaomi. The partners Andreas Tanner and Gunnar Baumgärtel led the nullity suit, while a team from Freshfields around Wolrad Prinz zu Waldeck und Pyrmont and Corin Gittinger acts for Xiaomi in the parallel infringement proceedings.
This article was updated on 13.6.25 to include information regarding the Xiaomi case.
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