Recently, the global patent dispute between ASUS and Lenovo concerning standard-essential patents (SEPs) has entered its final stages. According to the latest court notice issued by the Unified Patent Court (UPC), both parties have jointly applied to stay the patent infringement and invalidity proceedings and are currently proceeding with the signing of a patent licence agreement.

In addition to the UPC, there has also been parallel progress in the litigation proceedings between the two parties in the United States. Court records show that the case management conference originally scheduled in the US District Court for the Northern District of California has been cancelled by the court, further indicating that both parties have suspended the relevant legal proceedings, in line with the latest developments in the UPC case.

To date, neither ASUS nor Lenovo has issued a formal announcement disclosing the specific terms of the licence agreement, nor do the court documents specify whether the agreement involves cross-licensing, the amount of licence fees or other commercial arrangements. This global licensing agreement suggests that the SEP dispute between the two parties, which has lasted for nearly three years, is likely to be formally brought to a close. It also implies that, following the recent resolution of its global SEP dispute with Nokia, Lenovo may once again settle a cross-jurisdictional patent dispute through a licensing agreement.

Background to the Case

In August 2023, ASUS filed a lawsuit against Lenovo at the Munich Regional Court, alleging infringement of several of its 5G standard-essential patents;

In November 2023, Lenovo launched a counter-offensive in the US by filing a complaint with the US International Trade Commission (ITC), alleging that technology in ASUS’s ZenBook Pro and ZenBook Flip 14 laptops infringed several patents relating to wireless communication and diagonal touchpad technology, and by bringing parallel proceedings in the US District Court for the Northern District of California;

In June 2024, Lenovo brought further patent infringement claims against ASUS at the Munich Regional Division of the Unified Patent Court (UPC), concerning patent EP3682587 (‘Reference signal for wireless link monitoring’); subsequently, Innovative Sonic Corporation (ISC), an affiliate of ASUS, also chose to sue Lenovo at the Düsseldorf Division of the UPC, alleging that Lenovo had infringed its standard-essential patents;

Between 2024 and 2025, the two parties continued to pursue infringement proceedings and patent validity disputes concerning relevant SEPs and non-SEPs in Germany, the UPC and the United States. Among these, the US International Trade Commission concluded its Section 337 investigation against Lenovo and ultimately determined that ASUS had not violated Section 337 of the US Tariff Act of 1930, and did not issue an exclusion order against the products in question;

In June 2026, the parties entered the final stage of finalising a patent licence agreement and jointly applied to the UPC to stay the patent infringement and invalidity proceedings.