Volkswagen accepts 5G licence from Avanci with little resistance

Two years after the Volkswagen Group accepted a 4G licence from Avanci, the car giant has now signed a 5G licence with the patent pool. However, according to JUVE Patent information, unlike in the years from 2019 to 2022 no intense patent litigation preceded the current agreement.

Multiple brands in 5G

According to an announcement by Avanci, the Volkswagen Group has joined the Avanci 5G Vehicle programme. The deal includes all Volkswagen Group car, bus and truck manufacturing brands, such as Audi, Bentley, CUPRA, Lamborghini, MAN, Porsche, Scania, SEAT, Škoda, Volkswagen, and VW Truck & Bus.

The Volkswagen deal comes only seven days after another major car manufacturer accepted an Avanci licence. On 13 February, General Motors also joined the Avanci 5G Vehicle programme.

Laurie Fitzgerald, president at Avanci Vehicle, says, “With the addition of the Volkswagen Group brands, Avanci 5G Vehicle now includes more than 25 automotive brands and over 60 licensors as participants in our global one-stop-solution.”

Volkswagen’s long resistance

In March 2022, Volkswagen and Avanci had agreed for the German carmaker to take a 4G licence, following years of negotiations. Volkswagen had already taken a licence for 2G and 3G patents in 2019.

It took a long time for the companies to conclude the 4G licence, although Volkswagen was generally one of the supporters of a pool-licence solution. Nevertheless, the company negotiated with Avanci for a long time.

Simultaneously, patent pool members and the car manufacturer were facing off in Germany. For example, IP Bridge was known to have filed lawsuits against Volkswagen at the Munich Regional Court. Other patent holders not associated with Avanci also sued Volkswagen over connected car patents during this period.

Volkswagen also campaigned intensively for a reform of the so-called automatic injunction in German patent proceedings. The head of the IP department at the time, Uwe Wiesner, repeatedly called publicly for more exceptions and more discretion for German judges when sentencing companies for patent infringement.

New era begins

The current German Patent Act have also incorporated some of these demands. However, the changes have not yet had any practical impact in German patent litigation. Under the current head of the IP department, Silke Reinhold, Volkswagen is less frequently present in patent courts.

On the other hand, at the beginning of January, US company Network System Technologies sued Texas Instruments, Audi and Volkswagen at the Unified Patent Court for infringement of three patents. Unlike in the early connected-car wars, this case is not about mobile phones, but semiconductor patents.