Yesterday, Patently Apple posted a report titled “Apple’s 5G iPhones and iPads have been banned in Colombia after the Court granted Ericsson a rare Anti-Antisuit Injunction+” Our report briefly covered two detailed reports from FOSS Patents.

Today we learn that Apple has gone on offense and into rapid action in Germany. According to the well versed Florian Mueller, there are more firsts in the Ericsson v. Apple 5G patent dispute:

• the first-ever Colombian standard-essential patent (SEP) judgment (Ericsson is now enforcing a 5G injunction, which Apple desperately sought to prevent),

• the first-ever "emergency motion" for an antisuit damages order (Apple's reaction to the Colombian decision), and now...

• the first-ever SEP lawsuit brought by Apple, which has been on the receiving end of SEP assertions for well over a decade but is only now striking back with a SEP for the first time in its history.

The report further notes that the venue will be Munich, the world's #1 SEP injunction hotspot. While he has yet to find out whether Apple is seeking an injunction, Mueller is sure that Apple will either do so shortly or a little down the road. 

The patent-in-suit is EP3178199 / WO2016022698A1 on "virtualized network function management." Intel originally filed for this patent and a few months later Apple bought Intel's baseband chipset division, and in a subsequent transaction acquired many of Intel's cellular SEPs, such as this one.

The Munich I Regional Court has assigned this case to its 21st Civil Chamber. The full trial is slated for February 15, 2023. For more on this, read the full report by FOSS Patents.

Update: July 11, 1 PM: Apple Urges Texas-based Court to hold Emergency Hearing stressing the magnitude of the harm to Apple from Ericsson's enforcement of a preliminary injunction over a 5G standard-essential patent (SEP).” Read the FOSS Patent follow-up report here.