On 21 December 2017 the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California released its judgment in TCL Communications v Ericsson setting a Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) rate for Ericsson’s Standard Essential Patent (SEP) portfolio for licensing to Chinese handset manufacturer TCL Communications (TCL).

This decision by Judge James Selna comes eight months after the High Court of England and Wales set a global FRAND rate in Unwired Planet v Huawei for Unwired Planet’s SEP portfolio purchased from Ericsson (which necessitated determining the rate for Ericsson’s portfolio). Both courts utilised similar methodologies to establish FRAND rates, yet arrived at royalties that were quite different, with the California court establishing a FRAND rate for Ericsson’s portfolio that is less than half the rate set by the English court. In this note we examine the courts’ analyses and how the judgments differ.