On 13 January 2016 the Düsseldorf Court of Appeal (docket number I-15 U 65/15 and I-15 U 66/15), on Haier's request, granted a preliminary stay of enforcement of the first instance judgment in Sisvel v Haier (cases 4a O 144/14 and 4a O 93/14). It has to be noted that such a request is only granted in exceptional cases, if the Court of Appeal – already upon preliminary review – identifies clear errors in legal application, that will likely lead to a reversal in the pending appeal proceedings. The Court of Appeal inter alia criticized the Düsseldorf Regional Court's judgment in that it did not contain a specific determination of whether Sisvel's initial offer of a licensing agreement was actually FRAND or not. Therefore, the Haier-judgment of the Düsseldorf Regional Court was apparently wrong in this regard. It remains to be seen how the Court of Appeal will eventually deal with the case. The Court of Appeal scheduled two oral hearings at the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017, respectively.

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