UK law
Patents Court refuses interim licence for video coding patents including SEPs
The Patents Court has issued its judgment in Alcatel Lucent SAS v Amazon Digital UK Ltd and others [2024] EWHC 1921 (Pat). The case arose in the context of a dispute between Nokia and Amazon. The court dismissed a claim that Amazon should be offered a licence on RAND (fair and non-discriminatory) terms and held that there was no sufficiently arguable case that an interim licence had to be granted. Amazon had also sought an order for the trial to be expedited and the court fixed a trial date for October 2025, saying that the Lenovo/Interdigital proceedings were (slightly) more urgent (see below).
Patent Court says that foreign injunction is reason for expediting FRAND trial
In Lenovo Group Ltd and others v Interdigital Technology Corporation and others [2024] EWHC 1922 (Pat), the Patents Court granted an application to expedite the FRAND trial in the ongoing litigation between Lenovo and InterDigital over licensing standard essential patents. Lenovo had applied for expedition. Interdigital had argued that it was premature to order expedition as the shape of the trial was too uncertain. The judge said that expedition was warranted in this case, and that it was appropriate to order an expedited trial in June/July 2025.
High Court rules that section 127 of the Communications Act applied to private consensual messages
The High Court has ruled in the case of Cobban v DPP [2024] EWHC 1908 (Admin). The magistrates court had said that messages sent by the appellants in a WhatsApp group of serving police officers were contrary to section 127(1) of the Communications Act 2003 (sending grossly offensive messages). This was apparently the first time the High Court had considered the application of section 127 to private consensual messaging and it upheld the decision of the magistrates court.
ICO welcomes sentencing of defendant who unlawfully accessed personal data
A man who unlawfully accessed personal data has been sentenced under section 55 of the Data Protection Act 1998 after an ICO investigation. He was fined £10,000, plus costs of £1,700. The defendant had previously been an employee of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, then left in 2009 to set up his own personal injury firm. He was still in contact with former colleagues, and so could illegally obtain the details of those involved in road traffic accidents then contact them offering legal services. At one point, he had access to the internal Enterprise database allowing him to access the personal details of clients. He had previously been ordered to pay Enterprise Rent-A-Car a £300,000 civil settlement, then was interviewed by the ICO’s criminal investigations team the following year. The fine must be paid within 12 months, or will default to a custodial sentence of nine months.
ICO issues statement on Meta’s ad-free subscription service
The ICO has issued a statement about Meta’s ad-free subscription service. It said that “One of our key priorities is to ensure that people’s information rights are upheld by the online advertising industry. Earlier this year we ran a call for views on “consent or pay” models, in which service users pay a fee to not be tracked for online advertising. We are considering the responses received and will set out the ICO’s position later this year. Following engagement with Meta, we are examining how UK data protection law would apply to any potential ad-free subscription service. We will expect Meta to consider any data protection concerns we raise prior to any introduction of a subscription service for its UK users.”
EU law
EDPS publishes Model Administrative Arrangement for transfers of personal data from EU institutions to international organisations
The EDPS has published its Model Administrative Arrangement (Model) for transfers of personal data from EU institutions, bodies, offices and agencies (EUIs) to international organisations. The Model aims to help EUIs comply with the applicable EU data protection law, Regulation (EU) 2018/1725, when they need to transfer personal data to International Organisations, within the remit of their role. To ensure its practical application by EUIs, the Model places emphasis on data protection’s core principles and puts in place the necessary safeguards, aimed at ensuring a level of protection essentially equivalent to that guaranteed by EU legislation. As such, the administrative arrangements concluded by EUIs with international organisations using the model published today will continue to require the EDPS’ approval. However, its use by EUIs will help to facilitate the approval process.
Coimisiún na Meán consults on revised Rules to improve Accessibility of Television Broadcasters
Coimisiún na Meán is consulting about draft Access Rules for Television Broadcasters. The revised Rules contain updated binding targets for Irish Sign Language, Subtitling and Audio Description services and are aimed at improving the accessibility of programming for people with disabilities. Once finalised, the Access Rules will apply to television broadcasters based in Ireland. Included in the draft Access Rules for consultation are best-practice Standards which require broadcasters to ensure that Irish Sign Language, Subtitling and Audio Description services are produced to a high quality. The draft Access Rules also provide for members of the public to complain to Coimisiún na Meán about any potential non-compliance by broadcasters with the Rules. The consultation ends on 19 August.
X suspends processing of personal data of EU and EEA users to train AI tool
The Data Protection Commission (DPC) has welcomed X’s agreement to suspend its processing of the personal data contained in the public posts of X’s EU/EEA users which it processed between 7 May 2024 and 1 August 2024, for the purpose of training its AI tool called “Grok”. The agreement was concluded against the backdrop of an urgent Irish High Court application brought by the DPC under Section 134 of the Data Protection Act 2018. Section 134 of the Data Protection Act 2018 allows the Commission, where it considers there is an urgent need to act to protect the rights and freedoms of data subjects, to make an application to the High Court for an order requiring the data controller to suspend, restrict or prohibit the processing of personal data. The judge indicated in her concluding remarks that the rights and freedoms of data subjects across the EU/EEA were at the core of the application. This was the first time that any EU lead supervisory Authority has taken such action, and the first time that the DPC has sought to use its powers under Section 134. The application aimed to protect the rights and freedoms of X’s EU/EEA users, and came after extensive engagement between the DPC and X regarding its AI Model training.
